care diaries a way of increasing head and neck cancer patients involvement in their own care and the communication between clinicians head and neck hn cancer patients and their families meet a large number of clinicians during their long treatment period and many of them find it difficult to understand all the information given concerning their illness treatment and care we have developed a care diary for these patients and their families used also by the clinicians involved to improve communication and patient involvement the present survey was an evaluation of the helpfulness of those diaries anonymous answered questionnaires were collected from 42 hn cancer patients 28 family members and 47 clinicians of different categories altogether 85 of the respondents stated that the care diaries had a positive effect on information in general and communication it is recommended that care diaries should be implemented in the standard care for hn cancer patients and their families to improve the clinical value it is particularly important to inform the clinicians on how to use the care diaries the content and layout of the care diaries needs to be developed according to suggestions given from the respondents in this survey