Gino Soldati, Andrea Smargiassi, Alberto A Mariani, Riccardo Inchingolo
Novel aspects in diagnostic approach to respiratory patients: is it the time for a new semiotics?
Multidisciplinary respiratory medicine
patients becoming increasingly reliant online platforms obtaining health information previous research shown quality information available internet regarding novel medical therapies generally poor frequently misleading shock wave therapy represents novel restorative therapy erectile dysfunction ed recently gained attention hypothesised online sources regarding shock wave therapy ed would fraught misleading claims unreliable health information objective evaluate quality readability online medical information shock wave therapy treatment ed websites generated using google search shock wave therapy erectile dysfunction location filters disabled readability analysed using readable software readablecom horsham united kingdom quality assessed independently three reviewers using discern tool articles subdivided private clinic websites universities news media websites statistical analysis conducted using students test nine articles resulted google search mean readability scores follows fleschkincaid grade level 108 gunningfog index 1367 colemanliau index 1274 simple measure gobbledygook smog index 1333 forcast grade level 1133 automated readability index 1108 mean flesch reading ease score 464 articles mean discern score 31 suggesting moderate quality content articles universities n 2 news sources n 3 significantly higher discern scores articles private medical practices n 4 difference readability scores groups articles private clinics readable universities news media significantly biased misleading current online material relating shock wave therapy ed may adequately inform patients medical decisions making thereby necessitating closer collaboration sources disseminating information urologists