Usponsored and professional society Web sites provide significantly higher quality information about common elective surgical procedures than commercial sponsored Web sites according to research published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

The Internet is a good resource that can help patients make better-informed treatment decision, the quality of content on health related Web sites is not monitored and studies have shown that some Web site offer inaccurate information.

More than 110 million adults in the United States have searched online for health information, and two-thirds of these patients get information through a search engine instead of directly accessing a specific Web site.

“Empowering patients with a trusted source of information will lead to better informed patients and, in turn, improved expectations of surgery outcomes,” said Clifford Ko, MD, FACS, Professor of Surgery at the University of California, Los Angeles. “Surgeons should steer patients to high-quality medical Web sites until an accepted, widely used seal of credibility is established.”

An analyses found usponsored sites scored higher in quality, than sites sponsored by commercial organizations such as law firms and representing advertisements (50.6 percent versus 25.0 percent).

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