Hanif Faisal, Abayasekara Kumar, Willcocks Lisa, Jolly Elaine C, Jamieson Neville V, Praseedom Raaj K, Goodacre John A, Read Janet C, Chaudhry Afzal, Gibbs Paul
Cambridge Transplant Unit, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridge, UK.
Clin Transplant. 2007 May-Jun;21(3):371-6. doi: 10.1111/j.1399-0012.2006.00652.x.
Websites on the Internet are used increasingly by patients and those caring for them as a source of medical information. This study investigated the nature and quality of the kidney transplant-related information currently available on the World Wide Web (WWW).
Four common search engines were used to explore the Internet using the keywords "kidney transplantation." Each website was assessed on the following categories: source, language, accessibility, presence of kitemarks, and quality/depth of information. Websites were scored independently by four transplant clinicians (two surgeons and two physicians), and a weighted Information Score (IS) was created to assess the overall clinical and educational value of the site.
A total of 200 potential websites were identified of which 94 websites were suitable for scoring. The remaining 106 were repetitions or non-accessible links. The overall median weighted IS for the sites assessed was 21 (IQR 0-61). Median weighted IS of sites originating from Europe and USA were 47 (IQR = 21-61) and 45 (IQR = 15-61) respectively (p = 0.27). Websites belonging to academic institutions scored higher with a median weighted IS of 49 (IQR = 20-61) when compared with kitemarked websites (median 21, IQR = 5-45, p = 0.01). However, there was no statistically significant difference in weighted IS of kitemarked, professional (median 22, IQR = 2-53), commercial (median 20, IQR = 0-45), and individual websites (median 9, IQR 3-12). There was a good agreement between the observers who scored the websites with an intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of 0.79 and an associated 95% CI (0.73-0.90) for the four observers on the 94 websites.
The educational material currently available on the WWW about kidney transplantation is often of poor quality and more input is required from transplant clinicians. Quality seals in the form of kitemarks may give a false sense of security. The gaps in validity and accuracy of the information available on complex topics such as kidney transplantation should be filled; otherwise poor quality information will continue to be the norm rather than the exception.
互联网上的网站越来越多地被患者及其护理人员用作医学信息来源。本研究调查了目前万维网上可获取的肾移植相关信息的性质和质量。
使用四个常见搜索引擎，以“肾移植”为关键词在互联网上进行搜索。每个网站从以下几个类别进行评估：来源、语言、可访问性、是否有认证标识以及信息质量/深度。由四位移植临床医生（两位外科医生和两位内科医生）独立对网站进行评分，并创建加权信息评分（IS）以评估网站的整体临床和教育价值。
共识别出200个潜在网站，其中94个网站适合评分。其余106个为重复网站或无法访问的链接。所评估网站的加权IS总体中位数为21（四分位间距0 - 61）。源自欧洲和美国的网站加权IS中位数分别为47（四分位间距 = 21 - 61）和45（四分位间距 = 15 - 61）（p = 0.27）。与有认证标识的网站（中位数21，四分位间距 = 5 - 45）相比，学术机构的网站评分更高，加权IS中位数为49（四分位间距 = 20 - 61）（p = 0.01）。然而，有认证标识的网站、专业网站（中位数22，四分位间距 = 2 - 53）、商业网站（中位数20，四分位间距 = 0 - 45）和个人网站（中位数9，四分位间距3 - 12）的加权IS无统计学显著差异。对94个网站进行评分的观察者之间有良好的一致性，组内相关系数（ICC）为0.79，四位观察者的相关95%置信区间为（0.73 - 0.90）。
目前万维网上关于肾移植的教育材料质量往往较差，移植临床医生需要更多投入。认证标识形式的质量印章可能会给人一种虚假的安全感。在肾移植等复杂主题上现有信息的有效性和准确性方面的差距应该得到填补；否则，低质量信息将继续成为常态而非例外。
