BCKOnline originated as an idea from an Australian woman diagnosed with breast cancer.

The development and creation of the website has been funded through a Linkage Grant from the Australian Research Council (2002-2003) and BreastCare Victoria - an initiative of the Department of Health and Human Services, Victoria.

The portal represents the combined efforts of:

• A team of researchers from the School of Information Management & Systems at Monash University.
  
• The Breast Cancer Action Group (Vic) - an advocacy group for women with breast cancer. Ms Sue Lockwood


• Monash University Staff - Prof Sue McKemmish, Dr Frada Burstein, Dr Julie Fisher, June Anderson, Rosetta Manaszewicz, Kun Kevin Hu, Mitchell Slocombe, Andiwijaya Sumartono, Dr Sergio Viademonte.


• BSE Students (Industrial Experience Project) - Roshini Abraham, Wallace Chan, Sheena Ann Samuel, Hendry Setiawan, and Jack Shen. (under the supervision of Professor Heinz Schmidt and Dr Sita Ramakrisnan)
  

The philosophy underpinning the objectives and creation of BCKOnline are:

1. The information needs of women with breast cancer and their families are highly individual, dynamic, and varied. BCKOnline believes that it is the individual user herself who is in the best position to determine the type of information which will best suit her at any point in time.
   
   
2. The provision of timely, accessible, and 'quality' information can improve health outcomes, medical decision making and psychological well-being.
   
   
3. Personal, facilitative and/or anecdotal information has an important role to play for many women and their friends and families, as they embark on their 'cancer journey'. BCKOnline believes that the inclusion of women's and their partners' or friend's stories, anecdotes, and experiential information can contribute to and enhance the individual's experience of breast cancer information provision.
   
   
4. The ability of users to select the information they require is an important addition to current information provision strategies. BCKOnline thus attempts to empower the user through this element of choice and control.
   
   
5. The inclusion of a 'quality report' is further intended to allow users to evaluate the nature of information according to their own individual value systems and preferences. BCKOnline does NOT rate the information - it merely provides a 'checklist' for users regarding certain quality criteria. Users are free to make their own judgements.

The search engine uses an open-source search engine named Lucene.