Evaluation of educational value of YouTube videos addressing robotic pyeloplasty in children

Abstract

Background/introduction: Ureteropelvic junction obstruction (UPJO) is the most frequent obstructive uropathy of the upper urinary tract in children. Video-sharing platforms have become a significant source of visual information for health care providers. Among these platforms, YouTube® (www.youtube.com), contains a high number of videos free of charge and represents one of the most important and known websites of video-sharing. YouTube® is a widely used open-access video sharing website that allows us to watch an unlimited number of video content, and to upload an infinitive number of videos.

Objective: This study aims to evaluate the educational quality of videos related to robotic pyeloplasty in pediatric age because an increasing number of videos addressing these procedures is now available on YouTube®.

Study design: We performed a search on YouTube® by using the following keyword: "robotic pyeloplasty in children" on July 9, 2020. The first 50 videos were analyzed. The videos were classified according to the source in 1) academic (author/s was/were affiliated with a university), 2) physician (author/s who was/were not affiliated with a university), 3) patient, 4) commercial. All the videos were evaluated also according to the content in 1) surgical technique, 2) information about the surgery and disease 3) patient personal experience 4) advertisement. Duplicated videos and videos not in English were excluded. The search for videos was done based on the website's default settings in order of the proposed relevance. The reliability was evaluated using DISCREN and JAMA scores. The Global Quality Score (GWS) was used to assess the educational value. Time since upload, run time, like, dislike and number of views were recorded.

Results: The first 50 videos were analyzed. Seven videos (14%) did not meet our criteria and were excluded (three videos were duplicated while 4 out of seven were not in English). The mean DISCERN was 32.47 ± 12.24 (range 15-78). The mean JAMA Score was 2.1 ± 0.9 (range 0-4). Mean GQS was 2,12 ± 0.9. DISCERN and JAMAS and GQS scores of academic/physician sourced videos were significantly higher than the patient sourced videos (p = 0.037, p = 0.023, p = 0.017 respectively). Regarding content, the surgical technique had significantly higher DISCERN, JAMAS and GQS scores than videos based on patient experience (p = 0.012, p: 0.021, p = 0.023 respectively).

Conclusions: Videos uploaded by Physicians and Academic Institutions show higher DISCERN and JAMAS and GQS compared to other sourced videos and should be considered more suitable for teaching respect to those originating from patients or non-physicians.

Keywords: Pyeloplasty; Robotic surgery; UPJO.