Researchers have turned to the web to help cure Lymphedema, a chronic condition that causes swelling of the limbs and affects physical and mental health.

The disease typically comes as a result of breast-cancer treatment and is the second most dreaded side effect. While the disease itself has been around a while, it's only int he last decade and a half that it has been understood.

University of Missouri researchers are developing a place in cyberspace for people across the globe to input relevant information on the disease. The Informatics Institute and the American Lymphedema Framework Project hope the web space will become the place for researchers, medical professionals, care providers and even patients to come together regarding Lymphedema.

"There are potentially millions impacted by Lymphedema. We need to compare one treatment against another. We need to look at different categories of patients and find out what we can do better with the evidence shown based in research based studies. We can compare different diversities of patients. Maybe some patients respond differently than others. By looking at the bigger picture with more data find differences, we'll find the best way to treat an individual," said Jane Armer, director of the American Lymphedema Framework Project and associate professor at the University's of Missouri School of Nursing.

Armer is heading up the project along with Chi-Ren Shyu. She said thus far the team has built the architecture of the website. They plan on creating different categories of data and allow people to input their own experiences. She said they used another project, also done at the University of Missouri, as a model.

"My exposure to a data set like this is the one the University of Missouri did for nursing home quality care. That's a prototype that can guide us in developing a data set for Lymphedema," Armer said. "We think we can become a prototype ourselves for collecting data on other diseases as well. The architecture could be used as a framework with the content being adaptable to other diseases."

The project already has a global feel to it as the American Lymphedema Framework Project has reached out to international cohorts to participate. In particular, its gotten the U.K.-based International Lymphedema Framework is on board. The project is also partnering with doctors in South Africa, where extensive research on the disease had been done.

"We're taking everything hand in hand so that countries with lesser developed resources can be maximized. We're hoping as we improve care here, our findings can be helpful to other countries," Armer said.

Prior to this project, Armer said there had not been a singular place to go for people looking for Lymphedema information. The closest thing to any kind of Lymphedema guide was a best practices document that had not been updated since 2006.