Osteosarcoma: evaluation of information on the internet

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Medical Informatics
• Health Communication

Background:

• The internet is a primary source for patients seeking medical information.
• Online health information quality is inconsistent due to a lack of standardized medical publications.
• Osteosarcoma patients require accurate and reliable online resources.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the quality of internet information on osteosarcoma.
• To rank websites based on information quality and sponsor identity.
• To identify high-quality online resources for osteosarcoma patients.

Main Methods:

• Searched five search engines using the term "osteosarcoma."
• Evaluated the top 25 links from each engine (total 125 potential websites).
• Assessed websites based on information context and sponsor identity, assigning a quality score (0-26).

Main Results:

• Identified 89 unique websites; only 8% (9 out of 89) met the high-quality threshold (score >= 20).
• The mean information quality score was 11.5, with 32 websites scoring 10 or less.
• Academic organizations and university-affiliated hospitals provided the highest-scoring websites.

Conclusions:

• The quality of online osteosarcoma information is highly variable.
• A significant majority of websites provide low-quality or insufficient information.
• A ranked list of high-quality websites can guide patients to reliable osteosarcoma resources.