Objectives: The aim of the DIPEX project is to improve understanding of illness and promote a balanced exchange between patients and health professionals by providing a database of individual patient experiences. The database is intended to be accessible to a wide range of users, including patients, health professionals, researchers and policy makers. It will provide an additional data base within the field of systematic reviews and facilitate the inclusion of patients' experiences in the teaching of health professionals.

Methods: DIPEX is working with collaborating voluntary groups, patients and researchers to collect and analyse accounts of patients' experiences in a methodologically rigorous manner. Interviews use an illness narrative method and are video or audio tape-recorded and analysed using qualitative methods.

Results: A CD-ROM has been developed to demonstrate how the database will link the systematic analysis of the interviews with evidence of the effectiveness of treatments and details of other resources. The demonstration includes a short film about the project and video clips from interviews.