Comparison of New Era's Education Platforms, YouTube® and WebSurg®, in Sleeve Gastrectomy

Abstract

Introduction The Internet is a widely used resource for obtaining medical information. However, the quality of information on online platforms is still debated. Our goal in this quality-controlled WebSurg (R) and YouTube (R)-based study was to compare these two online video platforms in terms of the accuracy and quality of information about sleeve gastrectomy videos. Methods Most viewed (popular) videos returned by YouTube (R) search engine in response to the keyword "sleeve gastrectomy" were included in the study. The educational accuracy and quality of the videos were evaluated according to known scoring systems. A novel scoring system measured technical quality. The ten most viewed (popular) videos in WebSurg (R) in response to the keyword "sleeve gastrectomy" were compared with ten YouTube (R) videos with the highest educational/technical scores. Results Scoring systems measuring the educational accuracy and quality of WebSurg (R) videos were significantly higher than ten YouTube (R) videos which have the most top technical scores (p < 0.05), and no significant difference was found in the assessment of ten YouTube (R) videos that have the highest technical ratings compared with WebSurg (R) videos (p 0.481). Conclusions WebSurg (R) videos, which were passed through a reviewing process and were mostly prepared by academicians, remained below the expected quality. The main limitation of WebSurg (R) and YouTube (R) is the lack of information on preoperative and postoperative processes.