Thursday, March 18, 2004 - 11:07 AM
5331

Comparison of Plastic Surgery Websites

Douglas Trzcinski, MD and Karol A Gutowski, MD.

Since the development of the internet, the computer has become an important source of information for the patient who is considering plastic surgery procedures. Potential patients surf the web at home to learn about particular procedures, procedure risks and procedure complications as well as locate surgeons for their procedures. The content on the web has variable quality ranging from purely advertisement to accurate education. This study utilizes the AOL, Google, MSN and Yahoo search engines to determine the most common websites seen by the public while searching for information about breast augmentation. The resulting websites are surveyed to determine the type and quality of information. The content about augmentation mammoplasty is compared with the content from standards sites such as ASPS, ASAPS and implant manufacturers. In addition, surgeon costs and enrollment requirements to surveyed websites are compared. The goal of this project is to provide the plastic surgeon entering private practice with information about the website subscription process and the factors important to quality medical websites.