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Search engines are the workhorses of the Internet and provide extensive access to both old and continuously updated information. MEDLINE/Pubmed or Ovid are fast, up-to-date, and able to search by subject and/or author. For more general searches, google.com, excite.com, looksmart.com, and hotbot.com are all potent tools. Patients use these to generate volumes of information. Search engines can produce material suitable for everyone from a resident to an experienced surgeon or subspecialist. Focusing the search determines the sophistication of the resulting information. For example, searching for "rotator cuff" provides a different level of information than searching for "supraspinatus" does.
The following sites are subjectively rated from no stars to five stars.
www.orthop.washington.edu/shoulder_elbow
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Authored and maintained by the Shoulder and Elbow group at the University of Washington, this is the most comprehensive site devoted to didactic review of relevant concepts to shoulder surgery and management of shoulder problems. The information reflects the methods and perspectives of this group and thus may differ from approaches used by other centers. Nevertheless, this site is unique in its depth of information and extent of education.
orthoinfo.aaos.org/category.cfm?topcategory= Shoulder
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The AAOS offers resources to the orthopaedic community and to patients in a variety of formats. Your Orthopaedic Connection presents fact sheets and online brochures describing the basics of shoulder problems for patient education. A handful of topics, such as information on shoulder impingement and shoulder surgery exercises, also are available in Spanish.
www2.aaos.org/shoulder/main.htm
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Also from the AAOS are many constantly evolving forums and opportunities for improving one’s understanding of orthopaedic problems. Many are freestanding educational tools; others are adjuncts of developed educational products. For example, The Net is part of The Athlete’s Shoulder DVD-ROM series. Although still in its infancy, the site presents the management issues in a challenging rotator cuff problem (www2.aaos.org/shoulder/OC/oc.htm) and controversies surrounding shoulder instability (www2.aaos.org/shoulder/PCP/pcp.htm).
www2.us.elsevierhealth.com/scripts/om.dll/serve?action=searchDB&searchDBfor=home&id=se
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Another way to find online information is to use the e-interface or Internet site of an orthopaedic journal. The Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery, for example, is devoted entirely to shoulder and elbow problems but requires a subscription for any extensive utilization. The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (www.ejbjs.org) and, of course, the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (www.jaaos.org) also are available online.
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Specialty societies also can provide useful information or, more often, links to worthwhile material. The site for the American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons gives information on the activities of the society, lists its members, provides patient information, and offers a useful calendar of conferences and meetings.
Although most Internet content is aimed at marketing and promotion, the Internet is a powerful tool for obtaining information at a variety of different levels. Several sites provide excellent information for patients; it can be more difficult to locate sites with comprehensive material on the shoulder and elbow for physicians.
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