Cosmetic Surgery: Promises and Pitfalls™

An Internet Reality Check on Plastic Surgery Information

PROMISES The world wide web can be a valuable resource for information regarding cosmetic surgery. Compared with printed material, web pages are shown in a sophisticated, attractive electronic format and are interactive often. When the presentation of the material seems so authoritative, whatever information is shown seems like it must be accurate and useful.   PITFALLS Every informational resource from the library has been evaluated in one way or another before you ever see it. This is true of books, journals, and other materials. However, this is NOT true of the internet. There is no oversight and anyone can publish a website. "Excellent resources reside along side the most dubious." LET THE READER BEWARE! (from the Johns Hopkins Library's website) The information should be accurate and free of bias or specifically warn the reader of the presence of any bias. Accuracy of the information on a website should be verifiable. References to published studies should be listed or linked. Never use information that you cannot verify. All information on the internet needs to be evaluated by readers for authority, appropriateness, and other personal criteria for value. If you find information that is "too good to be true..." it probably is. A critical consumer must attempt to differentiate between information and marketing hype. "Today's patients have access to much more medical information than their predecessors did; unfortunately, much of it is misinformation." Bulletin of the American College of Surgeons December 2002

 
The Internet can be a valuable resource for users seeking health information. The quality of this information is critically important as it could potentially affect health outcomes for millions. Yet the quality of health information on the Internet is extremely variable and difficult to assess. Thus the choice of appropriate evaluation criteria for the information is both crucial and challenging.

While this problem is generally recognized there is no consensus on how to resolve the problem (one such attempt is the "Health Summit Working Group"). There remains no uniform guidelines for quality assessment of Web-based health information for consumers.
 

OUR APPROACH

Since we believe the Internet should be an important source of health information, we have developed this website to provide credible information about cosmetic surgery along with our opinions and approach to various aspects of this specialty.

We have strived to maintain an ethical approach throughout our website. For example, we point out the pitfalls of testimonials and before-and-after photos and realize their prevalence on the Internet and the marketing advantage they provide. Regardless, our site remains unique in the absence of testimonials and before-and-after pictures.

Unfortunately, we have learned the hard way that providing information about patented or trademarked procedures or technology can lead to threats of litigation. As a result, we have been forced to remove all names of such procedures or technology, which we believe is unfortunate for the cosmetic surgery consumer. This problem is troubling because unproven marketing claims cannot be challenged -- leaving the consumer with the impression that any marketing claim is fact.

Since we believe that accurate information is invaluable to the medical consumer, we frequently update this website to provide current information about new procedures.

July 2009 Update - Company Caught Manipulating the Public's Impression of Their Plastic Surgery Procedure
People thought they were reading postings from patients after they had a certain cosmetic surgery procedure. Instead, the postings were written by employees of the parent company of that procedure. You can read about it in these two articles:

• From the Office of the New York State Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo - Attorney General Cuomo Secures Settlement with Plastic Surgery Franchise that Flooded Internet with False Positive Reviews
• From the New York Times - Company Settles Cases of Reviews it Faked. This article states "Andrew M. Cuomo, New York’s attorney general, said in a statement that Lifestyle Lift’s 'attempt to generate business by duping consumers was cynical, manipulative and illegal.'”

 
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