[General Spine] (Internet) Search Results a Mixed Bag

[Justin]

Orthopedics This Week

Search Results a Mixed Bag

Jacqueline Rupp • Thu, Jul 15th, 2010. Copyright 2009-2010 RRY Publications

The Internet has become the go-to spot for answers when there is a question. And when potential patients are looking for answers on everything from why their joints hurt to which joint replacement surgery is best, they go to a search engine and begin their hunt for information. And this is a critical moment in a patient's health. The search engine results they initially obtain can set the tone for the treatment they seek.

So what are they finding online? Well it's good and bad. Orthopedists at the Carolinas Medical Center took to the web to see just what their patients were finding. Logging on to two of the most popular search engines, Google and Yahoo!, the physicians searched for information on the top ten most common orthopedic conditions. The top ten results the doctors ended up with were then analyzed for three qualities:

• completeness
• correctness
• clarity

Since 75% of U.S. residents have Internet access and about half of them use the Internet to get their health information, determining what these cyber surfers are finding is critical to patient care.

So here’s the good news!

Nonprofits are doing a great job at supplying user-friendly and accurate information. These sites can generally be spotted by their ".org" ending and include spots like the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons' site "Your Orthopedic Connection," The American Academy of Pediatrics and American Academy of Family Physicians. Academic sites are good too, as are commercial sites such as WebMD.

Commercial sites that promote a specific product don't fare nearly as well. These sites make up about 2 in 10 of the health sites out there and sell health care products such as pharmaceuticals and medical devices. But they can't seem to separate the information from the marketing and focus more on promoting the benefits of their products rather than supplying well-rounded insight.

Another concern that is springing up online in the health care community is the growth of sites promoting stem cell therapies.

A study published in Cell: Stem Cell by researchers at Stanford University found that there can be a real danger to curious patients looking for the latest in cutting edge technology. The researchers used search engines for results of queries for stem cell therapies and came up with hundreds of companies promoting the therapy for a whole host of conditions. The danger lies in that many of these search results were actually from practices located in countries with questionable health care regulation. While touting the miraculous benefits of their treatments, many of these sites ignored all safety concerns and provided little concrete substantiation for their claims. In fact, many a site out rightly lied about affiliation with trusted stem cell organizations.

To counteract this bad behavior the International Society for Stem Cell Research created A Closer Look at Stem Cells to help patients wade through the scams and these modern-day medical hawkers.

[Greg]

Wow....that is so true about what their claiming with the stem cells. The bad thing is thats just one of the biggest common treatments that claimed miraculous healing and everything thinks....Oh, stem cells, well thats gotta work. I hate that there are so many places online touting these miraculous healing techniques that the people see the term state-of-the-art or cutting edge technology and always think the newest must be the best. I was surprised while reading that post when it was talking about the greatness of the non-profits and then it said, "So here’s the good news!" and I got all excited thinking they were going to mention the SPS....but they didnt. I know it was still probably on their list though. Good job Justin at making the site one of the "good places" for people to find the oh-so-scattered wealth of medical information.

[Justin]

Good job Justin at making the site one of the "good places" for people to find the oh-so-scattered wealth of medical information.

Sure thing, Greg! There's an awful lot of misinformation posted on the Internet and, unfortunately, many people are lined up to make a buck off of vulnerable patients in pain.

[Gilbert P]

Hey you guys

Well said thanks for the information. I noticed ehen you look up ADR most information is outdated a couple of years old not much recent information?


Thanks

Gil

[KBear]

Sure thing, Greg! There's an awful lot of misinformation posted on the Internet and, unfortunately, many people are lined up to make a buck off of vulnerable patients in pain.

Sad but true and too many desperate (I've been one of these people) people fall for it.