The IOM's National Cancer Policy Forum held a workshop October 5-6, 2009, to examine how to improve treatment and accelerate advances in cancer management by applying the concept of a "rapid learning health system"—using advances in IT and improved information sources to deliver the best care, personalized for each patient.

Susannah Fox presented data from Pew Internet Project surveys to show how the internet is changing people's expectations of what should be available to them and how patients are using social media to collect the data that researchers crave.