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Utilization of Online Resources by Patients in an Ophthalmic Emergency Department

Objective  To describe the utilization of online resources by patients prior to presentation to an ophthalmic emergency department (ED) and to assess the accuracy of online resources for ophthalmic diagnoses. Methods  This is a prospective survey of patients presenting to an ophthalmic ED for initia...

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Autores principales: Hwang, Jodi C., Yannuzzi, Nicolas A., Cavuoto, Kara M., Ansari, Zubair, Patel, Nimesh A., Goodman, Courtney F., Lang, Steven, Sridhar, Jayanth
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Thieme Medical Publishers, Inc. 2021
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9928005/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37388833
http://dx.doi.org/10.1055/s-0040-1722310
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author Hwang, Jodi C.
Yannuzzi, Nicolas A.
Cavuoto, Kara M.
Ansari, Zubair
Patel, Nimesh A.
Goodman, Courtney F.
Lang, Steven
Sridhar, Jayanth
author_facet Hwang, Jodi C.
Yannuzzi, Nicolas A.
Cavuoto, Kara M.
Ansari, Zubair
Patel, Nimesh A.
Goodman, Courtney F.
Lang, Steven
Sridhar, Jayanth
author_sort Hwang, Jodi C.
collection PubMed
description Objective  To describe the utilization of online resources by patients prior to presentation to an ophthalmic emergency department (ED) and to assess the accuracy of online resources for ophthalmic diagnoses. Methods  This is a prospective survey of patients presenting to an ophthalmic ED for initial evaluation of ocular symptoms. Prior to evaluation, patients completed surveys assessing ocular symptoms, Internet usage, and presumed self-diagnoses. Demographics and characteristics of Internet usage were determined. Accuracy of self-diagnoses was compared between Internet users and nonusers. Diagnoses were classified as high or low acuity based on agreement between senior authors. Results  A total of 144 patients completed surveys. Mean (standard deviation) age was 53.2 years (18.0). One-third of patients used the Internet for health-related searches prior to presentation. Internet users were younger compared with nonusers (48.2 years [16.5] vs. 55.5 years [18.3], p  = 0.02). There were no differences in sex, ethnicity, or race. Overall, there was a threefold difference in proportion of patients correctly predicting their diagnoses, with Internet users correctly predicting their diagnoses more often than nonusers (41 vs. 13%, p  < 0.001). When excluding cases of known trauma, the difference in proportion increased to fivefold (Internet users 40% vs. nonusers 8%, p  < 0.001). Upon classification by acuity level, Internet users demonstrated greater accuracy than nonusers for both high- (42 vs. 17%, p  = 0.03) and low (41 vs. 10%, p  = 0.001)-acuity diagnoses. Greatest accuracy was in cases of external lid conditions such as chalazia and hordeola (100% [4/4] of Internet users vs. 40% (2/5) of nonusers), conjunctivitis (43% [3/7] of Internet users vs. 25% [2/8] of nonusers), and retinal traction or detachments (57% [4/7] of Internet users vs. 0% [0/4] of nonusers). The most frequently visited Web sites were Google (82%) and WebMD (40%). Patient accuracy did not change according to the number of Web sites visited, but patients who visited the Mayo Clinic Web site had greater accuracy compared with those who visited other Web sites (89 vs. 30%, p  = 0.003). Conclusion  Patients with ocular symptoms may seek medical information on the Internet before evaluation by a physician in an ophthalmic ED. Online resources may improve the accuracy of patient self-diagnosis for low- and high-acuity diagnoses.
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spelling pubmed-99280052023-06-29 Utilization of Online Resources by Patients in an Ophthalmic Emergency Department Hwang, Jodi C. Yannuzzi, Nicolas A. Cavuoto, Kara M. Ansari, Zubair Patel, Nimesh A. Goodman, Courtney F. Lang, Steven Sridhar, Jayanth J Acad Ophthalmol (2017) Objective  To describe the utilization of online resources by patients prior to presentation to an ophthalmic emergency department (ED) and to assess the accuracy of online resources for ophthalmic diagnoses. Methods  This is a prospective survey of patients presenting to an ophthalmic ED for initial evaluation of ocular symptoms. Prior to evaluation, patients completed surveys assessing ocular symptoms, Internet usage, and presumed self-diagnoses. Demographics and characteristics of Internet usage were determined. Accuracy of self-diagnoses was compared between Internet users and nonusers. Diagnoses were classified as high or low acuity based on agreement between senior authors. Results  A total of 144 patients completed surveys. Mean (standard deviation) age was 53.2 years (18.0). One-third of patients used the Internet for health-related searches prior to presentation. Internet users were younger compared with nonusers (48.2 years [16.5] vs. 55.5 years [18.3], p  = 0.02). There were no differences in sex, ethnicity, or race. Overall, there was a threefold difference in proportion of patients correctly predicting their diagnoses, with Internet users correctly predicting their diagnoses more often than nonusers (41 vs. 13%, p  < 0.001). When excluding cases of known trauma, the difference in proportion increased to fivefold (Internet users 40% vs. nonusers 8%, p  < 0.001). Upon classification by acuity level, Internet users demonstrated greater accuracy than nonusers for both high- (42 vs. 17%, p  = 0.03) and low (41 vs. 10%, p  = 0.001)-acuity diagnoses. Greatest accuracy was in cases of external lid conditions such as chalazia and hordeola (100% [4/4] of Internet users vs. 40% (2/5) of nonusers), conjunctivitis (43% [3/7] of Internet users vs. 25% [2/8] of nonusers), and retinal traction or detachments (57% [4/7] of Internet users vs. 0% [0/4] of nonusers). The most frequently visited Web sites were Google (82%) and WebMD (40%). Patient accuracy did not change according to the number of Web sites visited, but patients who visited the Mayo Clinic Web site had greater accuracy compared with those who visited other Web sites (89 vs. 30%, p  = 0.003). Conclusion  Patients with ocular symptoms may seek medical information on the Internet before evaluation by a physician in an ophthalmic ED. Online resources may improve the accuracy of patient self-diagnosis for low- and high-acuity diagnoses. Thieme Medical Publishers, Inc. 2021-12-11 /pmc/articles/PMC9928005/ /pubmed/37388833 http://dx.doi.org/10.1055/s-0040-1722310 Text en The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ ) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License, which permits unrestricted reproduction and distribution, for non-commercial purposes only; and use and reproduction, but not distribution, of adapted material for non-commercial purposes only, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Hwang, Jodi C.
Yannuzzi, Nicolas A.
Cavuoto, Kara M.
Ansari, Zubair
Patel, Nimesh A.
Goodman, Courtney F.
Lang, Steven
Sridhar, Jayanth
Utilization of Online Resources by Patients in an Ophthalmic Emergency Department
title Utilization of Online Resources by Patients in an Ophthalmic Emergency Department
title_full Utilization of Online Resources by Patients in an Ophthalmic Emergency Department
title_fullStr Utilization of Online Resources by Patients in an Ophthalmic Emergency Department
title_full_unstemmed Utilization of Online Resources by Patients in an Ophthalmic Emergency Department
title_short Utilization of Online Resources by Patients in an Ophthalmic Emergency Department
title_sort utilization of online resources by patients in an ophthalmic emergency department
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9928005/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37388833
http://dx.doi.org/10.1055/s-0040-1722310
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