When you're trying to learn about a medical procedure, a hospital web site might look like a great place to find out what you need to know. But in many cases it's more accurate to view those sites as advertisements—they're trying to get you to spend money at their hospital.
"Although consumers who are bombarded by television commercials may be aware that they are viewing an advertisement, hospital websites often have the appearance of an education portal," write a medical ethicist and a philosopher in JAMA Internal Medicine. They note that a study of hospital websites about TAVR, a type of heart valve replacement, found that most trumpeted benefits while ignoring risks. Patients aren't used to looking for this information, and that's what makes the websites misleading, they say:
A car advertisement that fails to mention gas mileage or safety ratings, for example, may prompt a consumer to seek this information elsewhere. An advertisement for TAVR that fails to mention the potential for kidney injury or vascular complications is unlikely to prompt these questions.
Knowing the risks of a medical procedure is essential to making a smart decision. If you're hearing all about the sunny side of a treatment, ask your doctor about risks or do some digging on trustworthy medical web sites to find out the other side of the story.
Risks of Imbalanced Information on US Hospital Websites | JAMA Internal Medicine via Washington Post
Photo by Army Medicine.
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Contact the author at beth.skwarecki@lifehacker.com.
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