Skin cancer prevention educational resources: just a click away?
Academic Article
Overview
abstract
BACKGROUND: The general public and health professionals are increasingly choosing the Internet to access skin cancer prevention information. OBJECTIVES: To identify the optimal mechanism for finding skin cancer educational resources through the Internet and to characterize the resources currently available on-line. METHODS: A survey of experts involved in skin cancer prevention, followed by standardized searches through popular general Internet search engines using a list of 10 terms relevant to skin cancer prevention resources. RESULTS: Internet search was the preferred modality for identifying skin cancer educational resources of all survey participants. The five most-trusted Internet sites identified by the survey participants ranked within the top 10 most findable web sites using general search engines. Ninety-six of 1,000 web pages retrieved using general web-search engines provided information regarding specific skin cancer prevention resources. Seven databases were identified that catalogued educational resources from multiple sources. Peer-reviewed analysis of the outcomes associated with the educational resources was available for only four of 489 resources identified (2.7%). CONCLUSIONS: Information on skin cancer educational resources available on the Internet is abundant but redundant, and direct access to these resources remains difficult. No sites were identified that comprehensively catalogued and characterized the resources available from the leading providers.
