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[Information on the Internet for patients and general practitioners--critical analysis using the example of inguinal
C J Krones1, K M Ruhl, M Stumpf
1Chirurgische Universitätsklinik und Poliklinik, Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule, Aachen. Carsten.Krones@post.rwth-aachen.de
Introduction:
The Internet offers an increasing amount of medical information, but its value for surgical patients is doubtful.
Methods:
Using "inguinal hernia" as catchword, an amateur search was imitated on a German-speaking metasearch machine. One hundred fifty sites, standardized regarding quality and efficiency,were evaluated.
Results:
In summary, more than 50% of the sites revealed poor results. Technical appearance, quality of content, and target grouping show big deficiencies. The applicable laws were mostly not respected. The ranking lists of the search machines do not reflect the quality of the sites.
Conclusion:
Patients need competent guides to process surgical information from the Internet. The establishment of a specialized institution to control surgical websites according to quality, content, and legality seems to be needed.