Orthopaedics in the World Wide Web: Homepages of universities in the G7 Nations.

Questions: By which criteria can a homepage be evaluated? How is the qualit y of homepages provided by universities in the field of orthopaedics/trauma tology? Methods: Based on 37 ranking instruments, an optimized list of crit eria has been developed. Homepages of orthopaedic and traumatology departme nts of medical schools in the G7 Nations have been found with help of unive rsity homepages and search engines and afterwards were analysed according t o previously defined criteria. Results: A list of criteria containing 18 su bject areas with 49 questions was developed. 136 homepages were evalualed f rom October 1998 to April 1999. 15 outstanding homepages were found. The be st homepages are from medical schools in the USA and Germany, The most freq uent subjects were structure of the department (contained in 85% of the hom epages) and education/training (68%). 42 homepages provided medical informa tion, 67% of those homepages provided references (attribution), and 26% pro vided information about authority and authorship. 46% of all hompages were not updated sufficiently, Out of 125 homepages with an e-mail address 36% r esponded to an inquiry. Multimedia features such as video, sound or animati on were used by 6% of the homepages. Conclusion: Apart from few exceptions, homepages of orthopaedic-traumatologic departments of medical schools are still insufficient with regard to quality and quantity, especially regardin g medical information for patients and professionals. The developed last of criteria should be helpful in installing a basic standard for homepage qua lity. The time and effort involved in setting up and servicing a homepage s hould not be underestimated.