Grant: Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship Program

My proposed research project examines how alternative cancer clinics leverage harmful online ecosystems to exploit cancer patients with incurable prognoses. When cancer patients and their families receive the devastating news of a terminal cancer diagnosis, they reasonably exhaust all possible treatment options in search of extending life or a cure. However, the options they identify may not be evidence-based medical options but exploitative purveyors of false hope. Predatory alternative cancer clinics rely upon online technology platforms to attract patients and shape their online reputations. Therefore, the extent and drivers facilitating incurable illness exploitation online are understudied and require urgent public health attention. This project seeks to develop a harmful online ecosystem conceptual framework to document and understand the synergistic impacts of technology platforms and how they exploit terminally ill cancer patients. I will use an interpretivist qualitative analysis approach to understand how technology platforms attract and mislead potential patients. My research will use several theories, including critical discourse theory, grounded theory, and policy analytic framing. The findings will be interpreted with special attention to the commercial determinants of health. To complete this research, I plan to complete six individual projects over two years. Specific data to be collected and analyzed from alternative cancer clinics includes: 1) sponsored Google search results; 2) YouTube ads; 3) Facebook and Instagram posts; 4) TikTok videos and comments; 5) Amazon products listing for cancer cures; and 6) crowdfunding campaigns for alternative treatment. My proposed research will help understand the harmful online environment created or enabled by online technology platforms and how their vested interests may be incompatible with preventing the exploitation of cancer patients.