Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Assessment of online information on robotic cardiac and thoracic surgery

  • Research
  • Published:
Journal of Robotic Surgery Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Online health resources are important for patients seeking perioperative information on robotic cardiac and thoracic surgery. The value of the resources depends on their readability, accuracy, content, quality, and suitability for patient use. We systematically assess current online health information on robotic cardiac and thoracic surgery. Systematic online searches were performed to identify websites discussing robotic cardiac and thoracic surgery. For each website, readability was measured by nine standardized tests, and accuracy and content were assessed by an independent panel of two robotic cardiothoracic surgeons. Quality and suitability of websites were evaluated using the DISCERN and Suitability Assessment of Materials tools, respectively. A total of 220 websites (120 cardiac, and 100 thoracic) were evaluated. Both robotic cardiac and thoracic surgery websites were very difficult to read with mean readability scores of 13.8 and 14.0 (p = 0.97), respectively, requiring at least 13 years of education to be comprehended. Both robotic cardiac and thoracic surgery websites had similar accuracy, amount of content, quality, and suitability (p > 0.05). On multivariable regression, academic websites [Exp (B)], 2.25; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.60–3.16; P < 0.001), and websites with higher amount of content [Exp (B)],1.73; 95% CI, 1.24–2.41; P < 0.001) were associated with higher accuracy. There was no association between readability of websites and accuracy [Exp (B)], 1.04; 95% CI, 0.90–1.21; P = 0.57). Online information on robotic cardiac and thoracic surgery websites overestimate patients’ understanding and require at least 13 years of education to be comprehended. As website accuracy is not associated with ease of reading, the readability of online resources can be improved without compromising accuracy.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

Data Availability

Data is available from corresponding author upon reasonable request.

References

  1. Storino A, Castillo-Angeles M, Watkins AA et al (2016) Assessing the accuracy and readability of online health information for patients with pancreatic cancer. JAMA Surg 151(9):831. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamasurg.2016.0730

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Ybarra ML, Suman M (2006) Help seeking behavior and the Internet: a national survey. Int Med Inf 75(1):29–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2005.07.029

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Sand-Jecklin K (2007) The impact of medical terminology on readability of patient education materials. J Community Health Nurs 24(2):119–129. https://doi.org/10.1080/07370010701316254

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Hameed I, Hameed NUF, Oakley CT, Gambardella I, Bravo C, Angiolillo DJ et al (2021) Systematic assessment of online health information for coronary revascularization. JAMA Intern Med 181(7):1003

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  5. Garfinkle R, Wong-Chong N, Petrucci A et al (2019) Assessing the readability, quality and accuracy of online health information for patients with low anterior resection syndrome following surgery for rectal cancer. Colorectal Dis 21(5):523–531. https://doi.org/10.1111/codi.14548

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Whois Lookup & IP | Whois.net. https://www.whois.net/. Accessed 25 Mar 2020

  7. Mumford ME (1997) A descriptive study of the readability of patient information leaflets designed by nurses. J Adv Nurs 26(5):985–991. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2648.1997.00455.x

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Eysenbach G, Powell J, Kuss O, Sa E-R (2002) Empirical studies assessing the quality of health information for consumers on the world wide web: a systematic review. JAMA 287(20):2691. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.287.20.2691

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Doak CC, Doak LG, Root JH (1996) Teaching patients with low literacy skills, 2nd edn. J.B. Lippincott, Philadelphia

    Google Scholar 

  10. Charnock D, University of Oxford, British Library (1998) The DISCERN handbook: quality criteria for consumer health information on treatment choices. Radcliffe Medical, Abingdon

  11. Dy CJ, Taylor SA, Patel RM, McCarthy MM, Roberts TR, Daluiski A (2012) Does the quality, accuracy, and readability of information about lateral epicondylitis on the Internet vary with the search term used? Hand 7(4):420–425. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11552-012-9443-z

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  12. Hargrave DR, Hargrave UA, Bouffet E (2006) Quality of health information on the Internet in pediatric neuro-oncology. Neuro-Oncol 8(2):175–182. https://doi.org/10.1215/15228517-2005-008

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  13. Tian C, Champlin S, Mackert M, Lazard A, Agrawal D (2014) Readability, suitability, and health content assessment of web-based patient education materials on colorectal cancer screening. Gastrointest Endosc 80(2):284-290.e2. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gie.2014.01.034

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Weiss BD, American Medical Association, AMA Foundation (2003) Health literacy: help your patients understand : a continuing medical education (CME) program that provides tools to enhance patient care, improve office productivity, and reduce healthcare costs. American Medical Association Foundation and American Medical Association, Chicago

  15. Educational Attainment in the United States: 2018. https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2018/demo/education-attainment/cps-detailed-tables.html. Accessed 14 Sept 2020

  16. Simply Put: A guide for creating easy-to-understand materials. Published online April 2009. https://www.cdc.gov/healthliteracy/pdf/Simply_Put.pdf. Accessed 28 Mar 2020

  17. Houts PS, Doak CC, Doak LG, Loscalzo MJ (2006) The role of pictures in improving health communication: a review of research on attention, comprehension, recall, and adherence. Patient Educ Couns 61(2):173–190. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2005.05.004

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  18. Shaffer VA, Owens J, Zikmund-Fisher BJ (2013) The effect of patient narratives on information search in a web-based breast cancer decision aid: an eye-tracking study. J Med Internet Res 15(12):e273. https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.2784

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  19. Chaffin AJ, Maddux CD (2007) Accessibility accommodations for older adults seeking e-health information. J Gerontol Nurs 33(3):6–12. https://doi.org/10.3928/00989134-20070301-03

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Weeks BE, Friedenberg LM, Southwell BG, Slater JS (2012) Behavioral consequences of conflict-oriented health news coverage: the 2009 mammography guideline controversy and online information seeking. Health Commun 27(2):158–166. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2011.571757

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. McMullan M (2006) Patients using the Internet to obtain health information: how this affects the patient-health professional relationship. Patient Educ Couns 63(1–2):24–28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2005.10.006

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Walling AM, Maliski S, Bogorad A, Litwin MS (2004) Assessment of content completeness and accuracy of prostate cancer patient education materials. Patient Educ Couns 54(3):337–343. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2003.10.005

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Wong DK-K, Cheung M-K (2019) Online health information seeking and eHealth literacy among patients attending a primary care clinic in Hong Kong: a cross-sectional survey. J Med Internet Res 21(3):e10831. https://doi.org/10.2196/10831

  24. Yoon H, Jang Y, Vaughan PW, Garcia M (2020) Older adults’ Internet use for health information: digital divide by race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status. J Appl Gerontol 39:105–110

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Roth GA, Johnson C, Abajobir A et al (2017) Global, regional, and national burden of cardiovascular diseases for 10 causes, 1990 to 2015. J Am Coll Cardiol 70(1):1–25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2017.04.052

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  26. Gaudino M, Chikwe J, Hameed I, Robinson NB, Fremes SE, Ruel M (2020) Response of cardiac surgery units to COVID-19: an internationally-based quantitative survey circulation. Circulation 142(3):300–302. https://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.120.047865

  27. Helft PR, Hlubocky F, Daugherty CK (2003) American Oncologists’ views of Internet use by cancer patients: a mail survey of American Society of Clinical Oncology members. J Clin Oncol 21(5):942–947. https://doi.org/10.1200/JCO.2003.08.007

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  28. Joseph-Williams N, Elwyn G, Edwards A (2014) Knowledge is not power for patients: a systematic review and thematic synthesis of patient-reported barriers and facilitators to shared decision making. Patient Educ Couns 94(3):291–309. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2013.10.031

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  29. Melly L, Torregrossa G, Lee T, Jansens J-L, Puskas JD (2018) Fifty years of coronary artery bypass grafting. J Thorac Dis 10(3):1960–1967. https://doi.org/10.21037/jtd.2018.02.43

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  30. Nasser S (2012) Assessing the quality, suitability and readability of internet-based health information about warfarin for patients. Australas Med J 5(3):194–203. https://doi.org/10.4066/AMJ.2012.86

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  31. Benjamin Emelia J., Muntner Paul, Alonso Alvaro et al (2019) Heart disease and stroke statistics – 2019 update: a report from the American Heart Association. Circulation 139(10):e56–e528. https://doi.org/10.1161/CIR.0000000000000659

  32. Speros CI (2009) More than words: promoting health literacy in older adults. OJIN Online J Issues Nurs 14(3):6

    Google Scholar 

  33. Martin-Facklam M, Kostrzewa M, Schubert F, Gasse C, Haefeli WE (2002) Quality markers of drug information on the internet: an evaluation of sites about St. John’s Wort Am J Med 113(9):740–745. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0002-9343(02)01256-1

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Funding

None.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Cardiac Surgery, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA

    Irbaz Hameed, Andrea Amabile, Katherine Candelario, Sumera Khan, Eric Li, Soraya Fereydooni, Mariana Almeida, Nida Latif, Adham Ahmed, Marcus Krane & Arnar Geirsson

  2. Division of Thoracic Surgery, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA

    Irbaz Hameed, Andrew P. Dhanasopon & Justin D. Blasberg

Authors
  1. Irbaz Hameed
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Andrea Amabile
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Katherine Candelario
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Sumera Khan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Eric Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Soraya Fereydooni
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Mariana Almeida
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Nida Latif
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Adham Ahmed
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Andrew P. Dhanasopon
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  11. Marcus Krane
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  12. Justin D. Blasberg
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  13. Arnar Geirsson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

IH, AA, AG conceptualized IH, AA, KC, SK, EL, SF, MA, NL, AA, AD were involved in data curation and analysis IH, AA, KC, AP, MK wrote main manuscript, with reviews/edits by JP,AG All authors reviewed final manuscript and approved submission

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Irbaz Hameed.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

Dr. Geirsson receives a consulting fee for being a member of the Medtronic Strategic Surgical Advisory Board. Dr Krane is a physician proctor and a member of the medical advisory board for JOMDD, a physician proctor for Peter Duschek, and has received speakers’ honoraria from Medtronic and Terumo. The remaining authors have nothing to disclose.

IRB approval

No informed consent or institutional ethical review board approval was required for this investigation because no individual patient data were utilized.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary Information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary file1 (DOCX 568 KB)

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Hameed, I., Amabile, A., Candelario, K. et al. Assessment of online information on robotic cardiac and thoracic surgery. J Robotic Surg 18, 41 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11701-023-01794-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11701-023-01794-6

Keywords

Search

Navigation