A Quality Assessment of Research Hospitals Website

Information posted in medical websites may contain incomplete or inaccurate information and untested opinions. This study examines the quality of medical information posted by selected research hospitals that provide health-related products and services. Specifically, this study uses seven primary features and nine secondary factors to assess the websites of the top fifty research hospitals in the United States. In a nutshell, this study found that first-tier research hospitals are more complete in their Web disclosures. Design features and functional factors that are mandated by the government or are germane to the institutional mission or are critical to operations were found on all websites. Beyond that, there were significant differences in the amount and type of online disclosures between two groups. In other words, the amount of information hosted as well as the variety of Web disclosures available from a research hospital were found to be related to its ranking.