We read the article by Sullivan and colleagues [3] with great interest.
The authors concluded that quality of health and medical information available on the Internet regarding vertebroplasty is both “inadequate for proper patient education” and “potentially misleading as sites are more likely to present benefits of the procedure than risks.” [3].
Sullivan and colleagues did not mention the frequency in which patients use outside sources for health information. Do patients regularly check the Internet for health and medical information? If yes, have they encountered problems? The answers to these questions will likely require further in depth quality research.
Finding an adequate and reliable means of patient education is of great concern to us. Recently, Lee et al. [1] studied orthopaedic management on femoroacetabular impingement and reported the high variance of information found on the Internet. Mathur et al. [2] reported similar findings regarding scoliosis.
As orthopaedists, we have to ask ourselves whether we offer enough information to our patients. According to a recent report by Vasri et al. [4], if a patient is offered sufficient information from a physician in charge, that patient is less likely to seek further information on the Internet.
References
Lee S, Shin JJ, Haro MS, Song SH, Nho SJ. Evaluating the quality of internet information for femoroacetabular impingement. [Published online ahead of print July 3, 2014]. Arthroscopy. DOI: 10.1016/j.arthro.2014.04.102.
Mathur S, Shanti N, Brkaric M, Sood V, Kubeck J, Paulino C, Merola AA. Surfing for scoliosis: the quality of information available on the Internet. Spine (Phila Pa 1976).. 2005;30:2695–2700.
Sullivan TB, Anderson JT, Ahn UM, Ahn NU. Can Internet information on vertebroplasty be a reliable means of patient self-education? Clin Orthop Relat Res. 2014;472:1597–1604.
Varsi C, Gammon D, Wibe T, Ruland CM. Patients’ reported reasons for non-use of an internet-based patient-provider communication service: Qualitative interview study. J Med Internet Res. 2013;15:e246.
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(RE: Sullivan TB, Anderson JT, Ahn UM, Ahn NU. Can Internet information on vertebroplasty be a reliable means of patient self-education? Clin Orthop Relat Res. 2014;472:1597–1604).
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Tin, S.S., Wiwanitkit, V. Letter to the Editor: Can Internet Information on Vertebroplasty be a Reliable Means of Patient Self-education?. Clin Orthop Relat Res 472, 4042 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11999-014-3962-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11999-014-3962-6