Info-pollution: a word of caution for the neurosurgical community

Abstract

The medical-patient relationship is facing pollution of information all over the internet, for physician and patients is becoming tougher to keep updated with the highest quality of information. During the last 20 years multiple evaluation tools have been developed trying to find the best tool to assess high-quality information, to date DISCERN tool represents the most widely spread. Information can be found on the surface internet and in the deep web, constituting the biggest chunk of the internet, informing and controlling the quality of information is a formidable task. PubMed and Google Scholar are the most important tools for a physician to find information, although multiple others are available; awareness must be raised over improving current strategies for data mining high-quality information for the patients and the healthcare community.