Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, information-sharing has been a common aspect of care provision [1,2,3]. While much of this work has been done by government and health authorities, communicating to specific patient populations has also been necessary. In rheumatology, concerns around higher risk and worse outcomes of COVID-19 infection exist due to the immune dysregulation that is common to most autoimmune diseases, and the immunomodulating effects of disease modifying medications and subsequent vaccination [4, 5]. As a result, the need to share rheumatology specific information to this population is necessary.

Many rheumatology organizations endeavored to provide this information through web-based methods [6, 7]. However, it has not been widely reported how successful information dissemination has been, and if target audiences have successfully been reached. This study reviews user interaction with the COVID-19 resources available on the AlbertaRheumatology.com website and how that compares to overall website interaction.

Methods

The AlbertaRheumatology.com website was established in 2010 with an intended.audience of those interested in rheumatic disease in the province of Alberta, Canada. In March 2020, information on COVID-19 was first posted. In December 2020, a second page focused on COVID-19 vaccines was posted. Both pages underwent many revisions as the pandemic progressed and more information became available. Throughout this time, patients also submitted questions to the “Ask the Rheumatologist” on the topic of COVID-19, some of which were answered on the website. Google Analytics, a data analytic software, is embedded on the website and tracks the number of views, visit length, and visit geographical location. This data was collected and compared to non-COVID website resources.

Ethics approval was waived; the data collected is anonymous and based on public website usage.

Results

Between January 1 2020 and December 31, 2022, COVID-19 resources on the AlbertaRheumatology website had 16,969 webpage visits, representing 3.17% of website page views during the time (total visits = 535,537 out of a total of 115 webpages on the website). Peak visits occurred in March–April 2020 (2325 visits), January to March 2021 (6521 visits), and September 2021 (1021 visits), to account for 58.1% of all COVID related visits (see Fig. 1). 9303 (54.82%) of the visits were to the COVID-19 vaccine page and 6663 (39.27%) to the COVID-19 overview page, with the 1003 remaining visits to the ‘Ask the Rheumatologist’ area. Visit length averaged 4:08 min for COVID-19 vaccines and 2:11 min for the COVID-19 overview, compared to an average of only 1:15 min for all pages on the website. 70.0% of visitors to the COVID webpages were from the province of Alberta, 15.4% from other regions of Canada, while the remainder were international, compared to the overall website where only 32.3% of users are from Alberta and 49.5% from Canada (see Fig. 2).

Fig. 1
figure 1

Alberta Rheumatology Webpage Views (Monthly) Solid Line = COVID-19 Related Page visits; Dotted Line = Total page visits

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Fig. 2
figure 2

Geographic Distribution of COVID webpage visits by country (left) and Canadian city (right)

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Discussion

The provision of COVID-19 information on the AlbertaRheumatology website appears to have been well received, with nearly 17,000 webpage visits recorded during the study time period. There were three clear peaks of usage noted, which correspond with phases of the COVID-19 pandemic in Alberta. The first peak relates to the first wave of the pandemic, the second peak to newly available vaccines, and the third peak to a significant COVID-19 wave in the province of Alberta along with COVID-19 booster vaccine availability. While other papers have reviewed the quality of COVID online information, their use has not been well described [8, 9]. It can be inferred the target audience of Albertans was successfully reached, with a majority of use being from this geographic location, and significantly higher than other webpages on the site. However, this study cannot determine the demographics of the end-user, how they interpreted the provided information, and if it impacted how they proceeded during the pandemic.

While further study is clearly needed, this study suggests that web-based information such as this is worth producing, as engagement was very good amongst the identified geographic target audience.