Alexander G Weil1, Michel W Bojanowski1, Jacques Jamart2, Thierry Gustin3, Marc Lévêque4. 1. Department of Surgery, Section of Neurosurgery, Centre Hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CHUM), Hôpital Notre-Dame, Montréal, Québec, Canada. 2. Centre de Biostatistique, Cliniques Universitaires UCL de Mont-Godinne, Yvoir, Belgium. 3. Service de Neurochirurgie, Cliniques Universitaires UCL de Mont-Godinne, Yvoir, Belgium. 4. Service de Neurochirurgie Fonctionnelle et Stéréotaxique CHU, Hôpital d'adulte de la Timone, Marseille, France. Electronic address: marclevequemd@gmail.com.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the quality of information available on the Internet to patients with a cervical pathology undergoing elective cervical spine surgery. METHODS: Six key words ("cervical discectomy," "cervical foraminotomy," "cervical fusion," "cervical disc replacement," "cervical arthroplasty," "cervical artificial disc") were entered into two different search engines (Google, Yahoo!). For each key word, the first 50 websites were evaluated for accessibility, comprehensibility, and website quality using the DISCERN tool, transparency and honesty criteria, and an accuracy and exhaustivity scale. RESULTS: Of 5,098,500 evaluable websites, 600 were visited; 97 (16%) of these websites were evaluated for quality and comprehensiveness. Overall, 3% of sites obtained an excellent global quality score, 7% obtained a good score, 25% obtained an above average score, 15% obtained an average score, 37% obtained a poor score, and 13% obtained a very poor score. High-quality websites were affiliated with a professional society (P = 0.021), had bibliographical references (P = 0.030), and had a recent update within 6 months (r = 0.277, P < 0.001). No correlation between global quality score and other variables was observed. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that the search for medical information on the Internet is time-consuming and often disappointing. The Internet is a potentially misleading source of information. Surgeons and professional societies must use the Internet as an ally in providing optimal information to patients.
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the quality of information available on the Internet to patients with a cervical pathology undergoing elective cervical spine surgery. METHODS: Six key words ("cervical discectomy," "cervical foraminotomy," "cervical fusion," "cervical disc replacement," "cervical arthroplasty," "cervical artificial disc") were entered into two different search engines (Google, Yahoo!). For each key word, the first 50 websites were evaluated for accessibility, comprehensibility, and website quality using the DISCERN tool, transparency and honesty criteria, and an accuracy and exhaustivity scale. RESULTS: Of 5,098,500 evaluable websites, 600 were visited; 97 (16%) of these websites were evaluated for quality and comprehensiveness. Overall, 3% of sites obtained an excellent global quality score, 7% obtained a good score, 25% obtained an above average score, 15% obtained an average score, 37% obtained a poor score, and 13% obtained a very poor score. High-quality websites were affiliated with a professional society (P = 0.021), had bibliographical references (P = 0.030), and had a recent update within 6 months (r = 0.277, P < 0.001). No correlation between global quality score and other variables was observed. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that the search for medical information on the Internet is time-consuming and often disappointing. The Internet is a potentially misleading source of information. Surgeons and professional societies must use the Internet as an ally in providing optimal information to patients.
Authors: Shira H Fischer; Daniel David; Bradley H Crotty; Meghan Dierks; Charles Safran Journal: Int J Med Inform Date: 2014-06-16 Impact factor: 4.046
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