=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-3161/poster3
|storemode=property
|title=Promoting the Understanding of Breast Cancer Terminology: A Terminology Infographic (poster)
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3161/poster3.pdf
|volume=Vol-3161
|authors=Laia Vidal Sabanés,Rosa Estopà Bagot
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/mdtt/SabanesB22
}}
==Promoting the Understanding of Breast Cancer Terminology: A Terminology Infographic (poster)==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3161/poster3.pdf
Promoting the Understanding of Breast Cancer Terminology:
a Terminology Infographic
Laia Vidal-Sabanés 1,2,3, Rosa Estopà 1
1
Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Carrer Roc Boronat, 138, Barcelona, Spain
2
Universitat de Barcelona, Passeig de la Vall d'Hebron, 171, Barcelona, Spain
3
Catalan Institute of Oncology, Avinguda de la Gran via de l’Hospitalet, 199-203, Hospitalet de Llobregat, Spain
Abstract
Since 2016, breast cancer patients at the Catalan Institute of Oncology have access to a virtual
community for patients to address topics related to their disease. In this context, and with
terminology as the object under study, this project aims to make specialized breast cancer
knowledge more accessible to patients.
Keywords 1
breast cancer terminology, terminology infographic, understandability
1. Extended abstract
Since 2016, breast cancer patients at the Catalan Institute of Oncology have access to a virtual
community for patients to address topics related to their disease. In this context, and with terminology
as the object under study, this project aims to make specialized breast cancer knowledge more accessible
to patients.
The three purposes of our study were a) detecting the information needs of breast-cancer patients,
especially regarding terminology (through a linguistic-descriptive study and semi-structured
interviews); b) creating a suitable terminology resource for the social-communicative context under
study, which focuses on addressing the terminology; and c) evaluating this resource with the breast
cancer patients. In this presentation we will focus on purpose number two: the elaboration process and
creation of the informational terminology resource.
So, the first objective is to present a new concept of infographics as an appropriate terminology
resource: a terminology infographic —which revolves around terminology, and is also educational,
interactive, and multilayer. We will detail the development of the inclusive method we have used to
make the infographic, which combines classic infographics and terminology work. This combined
method includes essential phases both from terminology work and infographics and follows the
methodological principles and terminology work phases suggested by Cabré (1999) [1]. So, we kept in
mind the Adequacy Principle of the Communicative Theory of Terminology (CTT), which we consider
to be the backbone of any terminological application; also, we consider some of the proposals of the
Socio-cognitive Theory of Terminology (STT), especially the ones regarding the impact that the type
of message, sender and receiver and the level of specialization have on specialized communication.
These aspects will influence on the information considered important when deal with terminology [2].
Our method also includes fundamental plain language criteria, adapted to the specific communicative
situation within the field of doctor-patient communication.
1st International Conference on “Multilingual digital terminology today. Design, representation formats and
management systems”, June 16 – 17, Padova, Italy
EMAIL: laia.vidal@upf.edu (L. Vidal-Sabanés); rosa.estopa@upf.edu (R. Estopà)
© 2022 Copyright for this paper by its authors.
Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
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The second objective is to detail the resource’s principal characteristics. The four key features of our
infographic —terminology-based, multilayer, digital and interactive, and educational— make this
resource a singular tool. The fact that it explains a story, is based on a terminology tree structure, and
focuses on terminology processing are innovative aspects that contribute to the understanding of
specialized knowledge. With respect to terminology, the terms have been identified an extracted with
TERMINUS 2.0 (a terminology extraction tool) from a corpus of different kinds of documents, among
which there were documents on the breast cancer subject aimed at patients. In fact, all the terms in the
infographic belong to the Vocabulari multilingüe de càncer de mama per a pacients [Multilingual
vocabulary of breast cancer for patients] [3] which we have elaborated in a prior phase to infographics
[4]. This dictionary is currently in the process of being published.
The fact that the infographics is multi-layered is also a unique aspect, given that it not only includes
secondary infographics, but also gives the user access to different levels of knowledge, either through
the definition, illustrations, synonyms, terms related by topic, etc. We have also seen that most
infographics in the field of health are static: thus, making the resource interactive not only allows us to
deliver the information at the different levels mentioned, but also engages users and involves them in
the writing and understanding of the material. Finally, the fact that it is educational means that it is
appropriate for our objectives, since the instructional component is inherent to the concept of
infographics, to offer complex information in a more understandable way.
The most important aspect of our terminology infographics is that they do not avoid key terminology
in the field (which was the concern of the patients), but rather explain or define it. At the same time,
the visual support they contain, together with other techniques such as managing (instead of avoiding)
variation, examples, or information architecture so that terms are related by topic are also aspects that
contribute to reading comprehension.
Finally, we will present a terminology infographics prototype on breast cancer treatments. This
prototype is structured by a main, general infographic of breast cancer treatments and a series of
secondary infographics that refer to different treatments. For the prototype, we only developed the
chemotherapy section.
From our study emerge three main contributions. In the first place, within the framework of the CTT,
this dissertation ratifies the importance of the Adequacy Principle when designing a terminology
application, which stems from the specific needs of users and the communicative situation. We have
seen throughout our work that the communicative situation and the needs of our users are particular
(they are not experts, but have some knowledge on the subject), given that they are different to the users
and situations considered at the core of the CTT. In the second place, our second contribution refers to
the inclusive method we have used to make the infographic, which combines the most important phases
of the terminology work and the most relevant phases of infographic production. Finally, this work
contributes with a clear social orientation: the terminology infographic aimed at breast cancer patients
that we have designed, programmed, and evaluated. This resource will help patients increase their
understanding of healthcare information, specifically the terminology related to breast cancer
treatments. In this sense, the evaluation studies performed in the third phase of the study –an evaluation
survey sent to breast cancer patients and application of the PEMAT guideline [5]– verifies that
terminology, which up until now had been perceived by patients as an obstacle to understanding,
becomes a bridge between specialists and patients although, as we said at the beginning, in this
presentation we will not delve into this aspect.
2. References
[1] Cabré, M. T. (1999). La terminología: representación y comunicación. Elementos para una teoría
de base comunicativa y otros artículos. Barcelona: Institut Universitari de Lingüística Aplicada.
[2] Temmerman, R. (2000): Towards New Ways of Terminology Description. The Sociocognitive-
Approach. Amsterdam/Philadelphia, John Benjamins Publishing Company, xv-258 p.
[3] IULATERM (2022, in press). Vocabulari multilingüe de càncer de mama per a pacients.
Barcelona: Institut Universitari de Lingüística Aplicada, with the collaboration of Institut Català
d’Oncologia, coordinated by Laia Vidal-Sabanés.
[4] Lorente Casafont, M., Estopà, R., and Vidal-Sabanés, L. (2020). Adequació de recursos
terminològics per a usuaris avançats: el cas de les comunitats de pacients de la sanitat. Dins
Conceição, M. C., i Zanola, M. T. (orgs.). Terminologia e mediação linguística: métodos, práticas
e atividades. Faro (Portugal): Universidade do Algarve. http://dx.doi.org/10.34623/bybf-fh80.
[5] Shoemaker, S. J., Wolf, M. S., and Brach, C. (2013). The Patient Education Materials Assessment
Tool (PEMAT) and User’s Guide. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD.
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. https://www.ahrq.gov/health-
literacy/patient-education/pemat.html.