Available web-based teaching resources for health care professionals on screening for oral cancer

  1. Pablo Ignacio Varela Centelles 1
  2. Angel Insua 1
  3. Juan M. Seoane Romero 1
  4. Saman Warnakulasuriya 2
  5. Alexander Rapidis 3
  6. Pedro Diz Dios 1
  7. Juan Manuel Seoane Lestón 1
  1. 1 Universidade de Santiago de Compostela
    info

    Universidade de Santiago de Compostela

    Santiago de Compostela, España

    ROR https://ror.org/030eybx10

  2. 2 King's College London
    info

    King's College London

    Londres, Reino Unido

    ROR https://ror.org/0220mzb33

  3. 3 Saint Savvas Hospital, Athens, Greece
Revista:
Medicina oral, patología oral y cirugía bucal. Ed. inglesa

ISSN: 1698-6946

Ano de publicación: 2015

Volume: 20

Número: 2

Páxinas: 6

Tipo: Artigo

DOI: 10.4317/MEDORAL.20163 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openAcceso aberto editor

Outras publicacións en: Medicina oral, patología oral y cirugía bucal. Ed. inglesa

Obxectivos de Desenvolvemento Sustentable

Resumo

Objectives: To identify websites with adequate information on oral cancer screening for healthcare professionals (HCPs) and to assess both their quality and contents. Study Design: Websites were identified using Google and HON medical professional search engines using the terms “screening for oral cancer”. The first 100 sites retrieved by each engine were analysed using the DISCERN questionnaire (reliability), the V instrument (contents on oral cancer) and further by the Flesch-Kinkaid Reading Grade Level and the Flesch Reading Ease (readability). Results: The overall rating showed minimal shortcomings in the quality of the information in the websites. The coverage and correctness of information on “visual examination” was rated as fair/good, whereas updating of contents resulted very variable (eg: 81% for visual examination and 18.2% for molecular biomarkers). These results permitted to rank the websites housing relevant information for oral cancer. Top ranking websites were affiliated to the Oral Cancer Foundation (USA), WHO Collaborating Centre for oral cancer (UK) whose webpage is entitled “Oral Cancer Education and Research”, and the Clinical Guidelines maintained by the British Columbia Cancer Agency (Canada) and the British Dental Association (UK) respectively. Conclusions: There are web-based, HCP-addressed, resources on screening for oral cancer housing heterogeneous information both in quality and contents. The use of specific evaluation tools permits the selection of reliable websites on this topic with a potential to improve the existing educational gaps among HCPs.