Radha Sarkhell Saadi, Caplan Nick, St Clair Gibson Alan, Shenouda Michael, Konan Sujith, Kader Deiary
Department of Orthopaedics and Trauma, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Gateshead, UK.
BMJ Open. 2012 Aug 23;2(4). doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2012-001203. Print 2012.
The National Health Service (NHS) 'Choose and Book' online scheme, which allows patients to select the location and time of hospital appointments, has now been extended to include the option for patients to select a specific consultant to carry out any necessary treatment. The aim of this study was to determine whether there is sufficient online information about consultants or consultant-led teams for patients to make an informed choice regarding a specific consultant.
A web-based analysis of the availability of information.
North of England.
Two hundred websites of orthopaedic surgeons.
The websites were analysed using a bespoke template that took into account recommendations of the 2010 UK Government white paper. Each website was scored in relation to the availability of specific content relating to each surgeon.
The majority of websites detailed authorship information (73.2%), level of professional qualification (98.5%) and area of general (73.7%) and specialist (93.3%) interest. However, approximately 50% of websites provided no information in relation to update cycle, involvement in teaching or research and patient satisfaction. Only five (2.6%) of the websites presented death rates, and none indicated morbidity rates.
For patients to be able to make informed choices about their healthcare, surgeons need to ensure that sufficient information is available online, according to the identified limitations of the websites investigated in this study.
英国国家医疗服务体系（NHS）的“选择并预约”在线计划允许患者选择医院预约的地点和时间，现在该计划已扩展，患者可以选择特定的顾问医生来进行任何必要的治疗。本研究的目的是确定是否有足够的关于顾问医生或顾问医生主导团队的在线信息，以便患者就特定顾问医生做出明智的选择。
基于网络的信息可用性分析。
英格兰北部。
200个骨科外科医生的网站。
使用定制模板对网站进行分析，该模板考虑了2010年英国政府白皮书的建议。根据与每位外科医生相关的特定内容的可用性对每个网站进行评分。
大多数网站详细列出了作者信息（73.2%）、专业资格水平（98.5%）以及一般（73.7%）和专科（93.3%）感兴趣的领域。然而，约50%的网站未提供有关更新周期、教学或研究参与情况以及患者满意度的信息。只有5个（2.6%）网站公布了死亡率，没有一个网站表明发病率。
根据本研究中所调查网站的明确局限性，为了让患者能够对其医疗保健做出明智的选择，外科医生需要确保在线提供足够的信息。
