[Do we need a chart of quality for websites related to cosmetic surgery?]

The influence of social media and easily accessible online information on the aesthetic plastic surgery practice: literature review and our own experience

INTRODUCTION

Patients interested in aesthetic plastic surgery procedures increasingly seek advice on social media and rely on easily accessible online information. The investigatory goal was to determine the impact of this phenomenon on the everyday aesthetic plastic surgery practice.

METHODS AND PATIENTS

Five hundred consecutive patients completed a questionnaire prior to their consultation with a plastic surgeon at our clinic. A questionnaire was also completed by 128 plastic surgeons practising in 19 different countries. A literature review was performed.

RESULTS

Almost all patients (95%) used the internet to collect information prior to consultation, for 68% of them it being their first search method. Social media were used by 46% of patients and 40% of these were strongly influenced when choosing a specific doctor. The majority of plastic surgeons (85%) thought the information found on social media could lead to unrealistic expectations. However, 45% of plastic surgeons believed that their consultations became easier after the advent of social media, 29% found them more difficult. A literature review showed a high percentage of poor quality internet websites regarding plastic surgery and an increase in use of social media among plastic surgeons.

CONCLUSION

The internet and social media play an important and growing role in plastic surgery. This results in more informed patients but may create unrealistic expectations. Even if the internet provides ample information, it cannot replace the face-to-face consultation, which always should remain a detailed process, covering both risks and limitations of alternative procedures. Available literature on how social media influences the medical practice is still scarce and further research is needed.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE IV

This journal requires that authors assign a level of evidence to each article. For a full description of these Evidence-Based Medicine ratings, please refer to the Table of Contents or the online Instructions to Authors www.springer.com/00266.

Total quality management in plastic surgery

BACKGROUND

Quality management in plastic surgery has been limited to audit reports of individual clinical conditions, procedures and their outcomes, mortality rates, or other individual aspects of the field.

METHODS

This work was done as a part of the mission assigned to us from the Military Medical Directorate to work on and develop the policies and standards of the practice of plastic surgery in the Saudi military hospitals. It is an overview of auditing in plastic surgery with a new expansion vision of the concept of total quality management in plastic surgery including the executable component (new data collection forms) that leads to the complete quality cycle. In addition, a pilot study over one of the main referral units of the military hospitals, Riyadh Armed Forces Hospital, is included.

RESULTS

The various suggested audit and the monthly report forms are presented. The study of the unit revealed that the most frequently operated region was the head and neck, followed by the hand. Major operations constituted 31.3% of the surgeries done, and there was an overall negative correlation between age and hospital stay.

CONCLUSIONS

A general approach and unifying the auditing process facilitates comparisons between departments in the same country and between different countries in the globe.

Chirurgie esthétique : les réalités du virtuel. À propos de l’influence de l’image, des nouvelles technologies de l’information et de la communication, et de l’Internet

Communication using images proves to be the superior way to persuade audiences. Thus, in cosmetic surgery, images are widely used to inform and to lure consumers. The superpower of visual communication is being bolstered by viewers' credulity, who never call into question the authenticity of photos as long as those photos are credible. Colorful digital images are broadcasted among scientific meetings, displayed in medical offices, and posted on the Internet. They generate a virtual world where cosmetic surgery is idealized: plastic surgeons are talented and handsome, operations are successful, and complications do not occur. We consider that digital imaging and the Internet should serve as a means to provide information that will ultimately strengthen the surgeon-patient relationship.