PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Hansberry, David R
AU  - Shah, Kush
AU  - Agarwal, Nitin
AU  - Kim, Sung M
AU  - Intenzo, Charles M
TI  - Nuclear Medicine and Resources for Patients: How Complex are Online Patient Educational Materials?
AID  - 10.2967/jnmt.117.203380
DP  - 2018 Jan 01
TA  - Journal of Nuclear Medicine Technology
PG  - jnmt.117.203380
4099  - http://tech.snmjournals.org/content/early/2018/01/31/jnmt.117.203380.short
4100  - http://tech.snmjournals.org/content/early/2018/01/31/jnmt.117.203380.full
AB  - The Internet is a major source of healthcare information for patients. The American Medical Association and National Institutes of Health recommend that consumer healthcare websites be written between a 3rd and 7th grade level. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the level of readability of patient education websites pertaining to nuclear medicine. Methods: Ten search terms were Googled and the top 10 links for each term were collected and analyzed for their level of readability using 10 well-established readability scales. Results: Collectively the 99 articles were written at an 11.8 grade level (standard deviation of 3.4). Only 5 of the 99 articles were written at the NIH and AMA recommended 3rd to 7th grade. Conclusion: There is a clear discordance between the readability level of nuclear medicine related imaging terms with the NIH and AMA guidelines. This disconnect may negatively impact patient understanding contributing to poor health outcomes.