A Look at Two Websites on Lasik Surgery (laser surgery)
Today there are so many choices in life and a person who wears glasses or contacts might decide to eliminate the need for such medical devices. Lasik (Laser assisted in situ keratomileusis), the most commonly performed type of laser surgery, is an effective treatment that can correct many vision problems by reshaping the cornea. Life without glasses or contact lenses would be easier and more enjoyable for any human being. But can a person’s vision get worse after the procedure? To be free from doubts and questions most people can turn to the Internet to search for needed information. The Internet is growing and is one of the most effective ways for businesses to advertise their products and services to customers. Everywhere one turns it is .com, .gov, .edu, .org, there are many choices. Web sites offer information on topics but they all have limits. Most Web pages on the Lasik topic are directed to the doctor’s office and there are thousands of these advertising sites. One site offers video information from doctors and other professionals. Another home page offers information and personal questions to ask the doctors. It’s very obvious that one Web page alone does not have enough information for the researcher. Two good sites that offer wonderful information on Lasik are www.fda.gov/cdrh/lasik/, www.lasikinstitute.org/.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration through the Department of Health and Human Services has a very informative page www.fda.gov/cdrh/lasik/. Many different links on this page can give a person easy ways to access and understand unbiased information. The first impression about this Web site is the co-ordinate between the title, the links, the graphics and the colors that are used. The title is big enough to get people’s attention and direct them to what they are looking for, not like some web sites which do not have well-balanced compositions. There are no bloated graphics on this site or scaling image problems. The text is not dense but well written with readable font size. The terms used are simple and professional with a provided glossary.
An obvious distinction of this site from others is it seems to be very truthful when it shows all the risks that people could face after the surgery. Examples are losing vision, developing debilitating visual symptoms, and patients being under or over treated.
The first laser was approved for LASIK eye surgery in 1998, which is only a short 6 years ago. Due to that fact, the long-term safety and effectiveness of LASIK surgery is apparently unknown. In other words, the procedure does not guarantee people a perfect 20/20 vision forever or the vision as they expect. All the brands of Lasik approved by the FDA for the USA are listed on this site with examples like Bausch & Lamb brands and others.
The site takes into account what the viewer wants – simple, clear, easily accessible and reliable information provided as quick as possible. The colored bar graphs for example give information right there, one does not have to read the paragraph or the whole page before the meaning is given.
The site is current last updated January 7, 2004. The photos have a copyright from the year 2000. The site has good credentials since it is a governing body of our government. The authors are available through e-mail and free 800 phone numbers. Designers for this page could not be traced. Disclaimers can be found on this site, statements of what they can’t tell doctors and price they set or how the doctors run their practice are not regulated by the FDA.
The only negative that stood out from this site is that the search engine is hard to spot; one with eye problems might miss it. It is on the third line from the top in very small font looks like a 6 size or smaller. The engine does work well though, it navigates to any question one might have. The page of other resources offers 12 different links for further information. One of the links is direct to the best page I found on the web.
Another good Web site for Lasik is www.lasikinstitute.org/. It belongs to the Eye Surgery Education Council, ESEC. ESEC is an initiative established by the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery, a professional society of ophthalmologists. Since the Internet has become a backbone for the information found in the world today, it offers instant access to enormous amount of sources on any subject.
By sifting through the site, all the topics on the left-hand side come in handy for researchers to choose. Using the mouse on the computer, the familiar point-and-click functionality gives one access to a flood of information at ESEC. This site has more of what a reader wants with current hookups. It is not only for Lasik but it also educates viewers about other common eye problems such as cataracts, glaucoma with a lot of valuable and authentic details. One will not regret after visiting this site because he can learn so much from it.
The same format is applied throughout all defined eye problems. Beginning from the left side of the main page is the content of many subjects. By clicking on each subject, there come sub-contents. For instance, under cataracts, there are links for “What are Cataracts?”, “What causes Cataracts?”, “When Should I Seek Treatment?”, “What are the Benefits of Cataract Surgery?”, “What are the Risks of Cataract Surgery?”, “How are Cataracts Treated?”, and “Frequently Asked Questions”. It is a neat way to help people narrow down what they are looking for.
There is nothing to complain about on the graphics of the ESEC site, except not enough photos. All pictures are simple and ok sized to help demonstrate what the subjects are about. Some unclear photos on the site might seem the web designer neglected to put a clear image on the web but after reading the subject, the picture is under “Cataract” subject. The photograph is used to show the simulation of vision clouded by a Cataract. According to an interesting fact from a web site, it states that 83% of web users have left sites in frustration due to slow load times or confusing navigation. It is not the case for this web site because all the links work well; viewers can go back and forth without experiencing any congestion between the pages. A good working search engine is also part of this site.
This site is current and has a copyright date of 2003. The designer is Mojo at www.mojointeractive.com. This Florida based Web designing company does a good job with the colors and ease of use, photos however are limited. This makes this site a little dull. A disclaimer is found on this site it states that, “it is only for information and not professional advice as a doctor can give”. The authors of this site can be reached by e-mail.
Both the FDA and the ESEC sites work fast on most computers. One who uses an old Pentium 500 will see that the ones at the university, which are 4 times as fast in CPU speed, will not offer much better performance in loading pages for the reader.
While the FDA site has its topics on top of the page and gives space on the left for a picture of a pretty eye, the ESEC site seems not to waste any space. That is one of the differences of the two sites. Researchers from each site are capable of sorting through the topics to find resources for their own needs. The information is precise and can be crossed referenced. Both sites offer links to each other’s pages. Several cross jumping links are usable for the readers. There are no noticeable dead links at either site.
Authenticity and resourcefulness are the contents of the ESEC and FDA pages. The organization of doctors and the federal government should be a good bet that the information they offer is precise and accurate. Advertising that makes one mesmerized by something as funny or wacky such as rotating 3-D cow or, more commonly, an envelope opening and closing, dogs running around or snow falling can not be found at these sites. The use of animation might depend on the purpose of the site. Sometimes too much of that will probably annoy viewers. With these particular sites, there is no animation but they still attract people because of there own professional style. No advertising on these pages unless the locating a doctor link is slightly bias, the two Web pages both offer this service.
Disadvantages of the FDA and ESEC pages are about the $ cost and comparisons.
Doctors who advertise on this topic in the web seem to charge from $499 for each eye up to $1500 in California and other big city areas. The two sites do not give straight answers about the money topic but people can find out from the local library and from local community services and magazines that provide comparison information of services for doctors in areas.
Good things can be stated for each site and the two sites above should be used in synergy to come up with valid answers to questions for each individual asking. The FDA could use a little more updating since it lists the new computer guided and more precise Wavefront Laser under the approval section but fails to talk about it as the ESEC site. Updates on these sites seem to be often enough for this topic, since few changes happen yearly. The two sites seem to be objective with a goal to inform and focus in depth into the Lasik subject. Audiences will find accurate, current, and a professional appearance with ease of organization on all the Web pages offered. The few hinders associated with these two sources are not signs of weakness for either site. Other sites are so far behind in design and information and that alone makes the FDA and the ESEC sites worth the respect as excellent publications on the Web. Preference of which site is better should not be an argument a person can use both. Life after all is about choice and freedoms.