The Internet for pathologists: a simple schema for evaluating pathology-related Web sites and a catalog of sites useful for practicing pathologists.

CONTEXT With the increasing popularity of the Internet as a primary medical information source, it is critical for pathologists to be able to use and evaluate both general medical- and pathology-related Web sites. Several published models for evaluating Web sites prove cumbersome to use and often involve computer- or statistic-based algorithms. OBJECTIVES To develop a simple group of scoring criteria to objectively evaluate medical Web sites and provide a list of the highest-scoring pathology-related sites that will be useful to the practicing pathologist. DESIGN Using 11 commonly used Internet search engines, the top 50 "hits" retrieved from the search term websites for pathologists were scored using 5 criteria, including accuracy, ease of navigation, relevance, updates, and completeness. A possible 6 to 12 points per area were awarded, and the total score was summated. RESULTS Scores obtained ranged from 12 to 21. Thirty-five Web sites, all scoring 15 or higher based on these criteria, were listed as most useful. CONCLUSION A simple, easy-to-use, 5-category scoring system can prove useful in evaluating pathology- and medical-related Web sites.

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