The quality of information about sickle cell disease on the Internet for youth.

BACKGROUND: Adolescence is a vulnerable time for teens with sickle cell disease (SCD). Although there is evidence to support the use of web-based education to promote self-management skills in patients with chronic illnesses, the quality of SCD-related information on the Internet has not been assessed. PROCEDURE: A website review was conducted to appraise the quality, content, accuracy, readability, and desirability of online information for the adolescents with SCD. Relevant keywords were searched on the most popular search engines. Websites meeting predetermined criteria were reviewed. The quality of information was appraised using the validated DISCERN tool. Two physicians independently rated website completeness and accuracy. Readability of the sites was documented using the simple measure of gobbledygook (SMOG) scores and the Flesch Reading Ease (FRE). The website features considered desirable by youth were tracked. RESULTS: Search results yielded >600 websites with 25 unique hits meeting criteria. The overall quality of the information was "fair" and the average DISCERN rating score was 50.1 (±9.3, range 31.0-67.5). Only 12 of 25 (48%) websites had scores >50. The average completeness score was 20 of 29 (±5, range 12-27). No errors were identified. The mean SMOG score was 13.04 (±2.80, range 10.21-22.85) and the mean FRE score was 46.05 (±11.47; range 17.50-66.10), suggesting that the material was written well beyond the acceptable reading level for patient education. The websites were text-heavy and lacked the features that appeal to youth (chat, games, videos, etc.). CONCLUSION: Given the paucity of high-quality health information available for the teens with SCD, it is essential that additional online resources be developed.

Emigration of skilled healthcare workers from developing countries: can team-based healthcare practice fill the gaps in maternal, newborn and child healthcare delivery?

BACKGROUND AND INTRODUCTION: Emigration of healthcare workers from developing countries is on the rise and there is an urgent need for policies that increase access to and continuity of healthcare. In this commentary, we highlight some of the negative impacts of emigration on maternal and child health and discuss whether team-based healthcare delivery could possibly mitigate the shortfall of maternal and child health professionals in developing countries. METHODOLOGY: We cross-examine the availability of supporting structures to implement team-based maternal and child healthcare delivery in developing countries. We briefly discuss three key supporting structures: culture of sharing, telecommunication, and inter-professional education. Supporting structures are examined at system, organizational and individual levels. We argue that the culture of sharing, limited barriers to inter-professional education and increasing access to telecommunication will be advantageous to implementing team-based healthcare delivery in developing countries. CONCLUSION AND GLOBAL HEALTH IMPLICATIONS: Although most developing countries may have notable supporting structures to implement team-based healthcare delivery, the effectiveness of such models in terms of cost, time and infrastructure in resource limited settings is still to be evaluated. Hence, we call on usual stakeholders, government, regulatory colleges and professional associations in countries with longstanding emigration of maternal and child healthcare workers to invest in establishing comprehensive models needed to guide the development, implementation and evaluation of team-based maternal and child healthcare delivery.