Consumerism and its impact on robotic-assisted radical prostatectomy

Area of Science:

• Urology
• Surgical Technology
• Health Informatics

Background:

• Robotic-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) adoption is thought to be driven by media and marketing.
• Previous research has not explored the extent of online marketing for RARP versus alternative prostatectomy procedures.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the role of Internet media coverage and marketing in RARP adoption.
• To evaluate the quality of websites presenting information on different prostatectomy techniques.

Main Methods:

• Searched Google and Yahoo for "robotic prostatectomy," "laparoscopic prostatectomy (LP)," and "open radical prostatectomy (ORP)," analyzing the first 50 websites for direct-to-consumer advertising.
• Used linear regression to analyze annual Internet news hits over a decade for each procedure.
• Assessed website quality using World Health Organization's Honesty on the Internet (HON) code principles.

Main Results:

• RARP websites showed significantly higher direct-to-consumer advertising (64-80%) compared to LP (14-16%) and ORP (0%) (P < 0.001).
• Internet news hits strongly correlated with time for RARP (r²=0.89), LP (r²=0.74), and ORP (r²=0.76).
• Few websites met HONcode standards, with no significant difference in quality across procedure types (P > 0.05).

Conclusions:

• Internet media coverage and marketing are more prevalent for RARP than for LP and ORP.
• The poor quality of information on prostatectomy websites raises concerns regarding patients' ability to provide informed consent.