[The internet: an Orthopedist's boon or bane?]

Area of Science:

• Orthopedics
• Medical Informatics

Background:

• The Internet offers vast health information, but quality varies, especially on patient message boards.
• Previous research highlighted concerns about the reliability of online health information.
• No studies directly compared scoliosis treatment advice from message board users and spine experts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the quality of scoliosis treatment information from message board members versus spine experts.
• To compare patient-derived and expert-derived treatment recommendations for scoliosis.

Main Methods:

• An online questionnaire was distributed to members of a large German scoliosis message board.
• Participants answered demographic questions, discussed internet influence on decisions, and evaluated six hypothetical scoliosis cases.
• Responses were compared against those from 36 spinal disorder experts evaluating the same cases.

Main Results:

• 31 patient responses were analyzed against 36 expert responses.
• Excellent agreement on treatment recommendations was found in 4 out of 6 cases.
• Good agreement was observed in one case, and poor agreement in another, with no significant harm likely.
• One-third of patients reported significant internet influence on their decision-making.

Conclusions:

• Scoliosis message board recommendations largely align well with expert opinions.
• Online message boards can be a valuable resource for scoliosis patient care.
• Further research is needed to confirm these findings across other online platforms.