A Systematic Search and Technical Review of Online Information Pertaining to Medical Care for Patients with Disability

Abstract

This study examines the utility of online searches and technical quality of the resulting sites and materials when searching for information related to medical care for patients with disability. Systematic searches were conducted on two popular search engines using six search phrases. Resources were coded to categorize result information, presenting organization, and technical quality (attributes which allow for critical evaluation of source material). Only 8.9% of returned results included educational information about providing medical care for people with disability. Analyzed resources were most often from non-profit organizations (31.7%) in website format (60.2%). The composite technical quality score for all included resources had a median and mode of three on a scale of six technical attributes. This study provides a descriptive and technical assessment of the results from using popular search engines to locate information related to providing medical care for patients with disability. Less than 10% of the search results returned educational information, and many of these resources lacked technical information needed to allow viewers to critically evaluate the material. Sources within the first 100 search results of each search phrase and search engine pairing had a slightly higher inclusion rate at 15.6%, compared to an overall inclusion rate of 13.3%. Future work should investigate the quality and content of the information provided via online resources related to medical care for patients with disability, and potentially develop a collection of high-quality resources for health care professionals, patients, family members, and other professionals and organizations.