title: Patient-centered consumer health social network websites: a pilot study of quality of user-generated health information.
abstract: The quality of user-generated health information on consumer health social networking websites has not been studied. We collected a set of postings related to Diabetes Mellitus Type I from three such sites and classified them based on accuracy, error type, and clinical significance of error. We found 48% of postings contained medical content, and 54% of these were either incomplete or contained errors. About 85% of the incomplete and erroneous messages were potentially clinically significant.
authors.affiliation: Decisions Systems Group, Brigham & Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Christopher C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.forename: Sarai H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.forename: Qing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zeng-Treitler
authors.forename: Bryan A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Liang
mesh_terms: D054626:Consumer Health Information / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination; D020407:Internet / Q000592:standards*; D010865:Pilot Projects