DISCERN Tool

The DISCERN evaluation tool was first developed in 1998 at Oxford to judge the quality of information regarding treatment choices.⁴² This tool has been validated and used across various specialities to assess treatment information.^{29 40 43} This consisted of 16 items to assess both the reliability and level of detail on treatments as well as the overall quality of the information. The reliability section (items 1–8) evaluates the ability of a website to achieve its aims while remaining unbiased and providing its sources of information. Quality section (items 9–15) evaluates the content specifically for describing the rationale, methods and alternatives to the current management of a disease. Criteria for treatment section was adjusted to accommodate the treatment uncertainty and items are considered fulfilled as long as the website discusses the relevant information with regards to potential drugs or interventions such as assisted ventilation. A score between 1 and 5 can be assigned to each item, with 1 being ‘no’, 3 being ‘partial’ and 5 being ‘yes’. To improve assessment accuracy, overall quality of information will be scored in proportion to the mean scores calculated from the answers to items 1–15, with 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest.