Designing A Portal To Validated Cosmetic Surgery Information Websites

Introduction: Patients are increasingly accessing the Internet to obtain medical information. However, there have been many concerns about the difficulty in assessing the accuracy of this information. Although many website rating tools exist, the vast majority of these are unusable by consumers. Finding valid and up to date information can be very challenging and time consuming for patients. Methods: We analysed the first 200 websites are a Google search on "cosmetic surgery" using a combination of consumer and clinician based website rating tools. After identifying the "top scoring" websites we designed a "gateway" website and used these sites as links. Results: Eighty-nine percent of the websites did not meet the standard as described by the website rating tools. We also describe the method of design of the "gateway" website. Conclusions: Patients need to be better informed about the difficulty in obtaining accurate, valid information on the Internet. By directing patients to validated websites, clinicians can ease this problem. There are several resource issues that need to be addressed in order to maintain a website. WHAT WAS KNOWN BEFORE THE STUDY? Obtaining valid, accurate and up to date medical information is very difficult for the layperson. The usage of the Internet to obtain medical information is on the rise. There have been many instruments designed to assess the quality of health information websites; the vast majority of these cannot be used practically by laypersons. Physicians are often unlikely to recommend other websites as URL's change and many sites are not maintained and reviewed regularly. In disciplines such as cosmetic surgery, physicians may be reluctant to recommend a competitor's website. WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS Independent clinicians are best placed to assess the quality of medical websites. There is no need to design anymore websites on cosmetic surgery (or any other discipline) as there are over 16 million in existence. Using a combination of consumer and clinician based website assessment tools a “gateway” website has been designed. This “gateway” site can be recommended without any prejudice and is regularly maintained.