Roswell Park Cancer Institute Launches Interactive iPad Application

Cancer center launches digital version of Roswellness magazine, enhances resources for mobile users

BUFFALO, NY — Embracing the expanded possibilities of how people are receiving their information in a technological age, Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) is sharing information on two new electronic platforms: a digital edition of its Roswellness consumer magazine and a mobile website optimized for smartphone users.  

“Taking advantage of new technology tools is attractive because they enable significant cost savings, along with broader reach, thus enhancing our ability to share information,” said Roswell Park President and CEO Donald L. Trump, MD. “These web- and application-based tools are interactive and more engaging than conventional print communications, and they give us even better ways to tell our story, share with the reader what we do and recommend to them resource links they should know about.”

RPCI is one of the first healthcare organizations to create an interactive digital publication. Roswellness, a print product since its inception, is now created using the same technology major publications like Time and Sports Illustrated use to craft their digital editions. The magazine’s first digital issue, “Redefining Survivorship,” available to all iPad users, was launched this month with the tagline “Touch. Learn. Live.” To download, users can go to the iPad App Store; select the “Roswellness: Redefining Survivorship” issue, and click on “Free” to begin download. When the download is complete, users can go to Library and click on the cover graphic to launch the interactive publication.

“Going digital with the magazine allowed us to create a fuller, more dynamic user experience,” said Julie Wesolowski,Roswellness editor, who will be demonstrating the publication in the Survivorship Tent at The Ride For Roswell June 22–23 at the University at Buffalo. “We incorporated lots of interactive elements into this first digital edition — an animated cover design, slide shows, video, maps and social media feeds. With all those elements at our disposal, we were able to include incredible resources for Ride For Roswell participants and volunteers.”

The new mobile website, launching June 25, will allow iPhone and Android smartphone users to access all content from RPCI’s website in a format optimized for mobile devices.

“Our trending over the years has shown an increase in our customers moving to our web-based applications, and now we’re seeing more than 10,000 users a month accessing RoswellPark.org from mobile phones,” says Laurel DiBrog, Vice President of Marketing, Planning and Public Affairs, “so our goal will be to continue to enable users to get all the functionality of our main site — information and navigational tools for our patients and our other audiences, job listings and application forms, clinical trials — in a format that’s more convenient and easier to read from those devices.”