EQIP Quality Assessment of Refractive Surgery Resources on YouTube

To evaluate the utility of EQIP as a novel tool for determining the quality of patient information on YouTube regarding refractive eye surgery.

Three searches were conducted on YouTube using "PRK eye surgery", "LASIK eye surgery", and "SMILE eye surgery". 110 relevant videos were evaluated using the Ensuring Quality Information for Patients (EQIP) criteria.

The average EQIP score was 15.1 (moderate quality). On average, physician-authored videos scored significantly higher on questions 17 (p = .01), 18 (p = .001), 26 (p = .008), relating to author transparency and use of graphs/figures. Patient-authored videos scored significantly higher on questions 8 (p < .001), 9 (p < .001), 12 (p = .008), 16 (p = .02), and 21 (p = .0350). These questions addressed risks/benefits, quality of life and alert signs, date and video revisions, and personally addressing viewers.

EQIP was useful in identifying specific strengths and deficits in online refractive surgery patient education resources that were not evident from other screening tools. The quality of information on YouTube videos on refractive surgeries is average. Physician-authored videos could be improved by clarifying risks and quality of life issues. Quality evaluation of medical information is important for comprehensive online surgical education.