Description
We established the nature and quality of information available on the Internet, using the key lay term ‘Sports medicine’, in a search engine dedicated to the provision of health related information. We used the Medhunt search engine (www.hon.ch/MedHunt) and the key term ‘Sports Medicine’ to generate a list of websites. Two independent reviewers according to predetermined criteria subsequently evaluated each website thus identified. Of the 170 websites retrieved, 63 were repeated on the search. 65 sites were found to be primarily of a commercial nature, with the basic thrust being the advertisement of services or products. Only 22 sites were regarded as good quality sites, providing some useful information for the patients. Sports medicine professionals should be concerned about the poor quality of information available on the Internet. The lack of any guidelines or set standards and the instances of provision of misleading information need to be rectified.
