Tools (Dental Informatics Online Community)

Preliminary Oral Cancer Website Evaluation Tools

jeannieirwin (12 ), PhD developed an initial tool for evaluating oral cancer Website surface and content quality. She then applied the tool in a preliminary evaluation of 24 English-language and 24 Spanish-language websites. Information about the tools she used can be found on this page, along with the ability to use the tools to evaluate your own oral cancer website. Read more about the preliminary evaluation and see detailed ratings for all of the reviewed sites.

1. Evaluation of surface features using the modified Information Quality Tool (IQT) [pdf]

The IQT was developed by the Health Summit Working Group^{1, 2} to evaluate health websites for:

Disclosure: What was the purpose and intent of the producers of the sites?
Links: Were the links provided on the sites current and working?
Design: Was the site navigable and organized?
Perceived agenda: Did the site market services and products which can influence its agenda in providing health information?

In this study, we used a modified version of the IQT.

2. Evaluation of the content of oral cancer websites [pdf]

With the help of oral cancer experts, we created a tool to evaluate oral cancer websites for epidemiology, etiology and risk factors, clinical pathology, clinical presentation, oral cancer images, diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation, prevention, nutrition during treatment, follow-up care after treatment, clinical trial information, support groups, and references to the literature.

To use web-based versions of these tools to evaluate an oral cancer website, click the Next button below.

¹Mitretek Systems. Information Quality Tool. 2001. URL: http://hitiweb.mitretek.org/iq/default.asp Archived at: http://www.webcitation.org/5BgjEOh30
²Assessing the quality of Internet health information: summary. AHRQ: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. 1999. URL: http://www.ahrq.gov/data/infoqual.htm Archived at: http://www.webcitation.org/5gwGCiYgO