Patient education through the Internet: academic and private practice sites.

Although Internet use among patients continues to increase, the quality of disseminated information in orthopaedic surgery often is substandard. We reviewed and compared the web sites of academic orthopaedic surgery departments and private practices and rated their informational content with respect to patient education. Only 11.5% of academic sites and 52% of private practice sites list information on common orthopaedic conditions. Of these, less than 1/3 have information on various topics, and few have links to other patient education sites. Private practice web sites make better use of the Internet to provide patients with practical information about their individual practices. Few sites post the date of last update and those that do often have not been updated for more than 6 months. Academic and private practices underutilize the Internet as an educational resource. Orthopaedic surgeons are missing an important opportunity to provide accurate and reliable information to their patients.