TINA: A New Simulation for Neutropenia Awareness

In 2012, more than 108,000 adults and children in the United States with cancer were hospitalized because of neutropenia.
TINA is a new tool to improve cancer patient-provider conversations about infection risk. Available as a free mobile app and on PreventCancerInfections.org, TINA features two separate role-play conversations in which providers and patients interact with and learn from fully articulated and emotionally responsive virtual humans:

• TINA‒Training for Infection and Neutropenia Awareness, offers providers a safe and realistic training environment to practice meaningful and appropriate conversations with cancer patients about neutropenia;
• TINA‒Talking about Infection and Neutropenia Awareness, introduces patients to a virtual provider, TINA, who will answer their questions about infection risk and the steps they can take to protect themselves.

Launched by the CDC Foundation, TINA is part of the Preventing Infections in Cancer Patients (PICP) program, which has been led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the CDC Foundation since 2009, with financial support from Amgen.