Edited by: Yanwu Xu, Baidu, China
Reviewed by: Aboudou Habirou Kifouly, University of Ibadan, Nigeria
†ORCID: Henrique Jose Pereira de Godoy
Jose Maria Pereira de Godoy
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
The interesting article entitled “The reliability and quality of short videos as health information of guidance for lymphedema: a cross-sectional study” (
It is common on social media for people without sufficient knowledge of the scientific basis for treating lymphedema to ‘invent' a form of treatment and publish it in social networking sites. Laypeople, believing that it is a reliable form of treatment, begin to use it. Even non-specialist professionals have created methods without the slightest scientific basis or evidence and published them on social media platforms. This is the start of the destruction of the scientific foundations of medicine resulting in a loss of credibility.
As a vascular surgeon and lymphology specialist with over 35 years of experience and extensive publications in the field, my team and I have observed that many online videos related to lymphology contain misinformation that could be detrimental to patients. This aligns with our daily clinical practice, where we see firsthand the negative consequences of inexperienced practitioners. Therefore, it is crucial to ensure the quality and accuracy of such videos.
When we analyze these videos, we need to have scientific knowledge of the content, so it is not the number of publications that is important, but the quality of the material. We must also examine how treatment techniques for these patients have advanced over the past century (
Specifically in lymphedema, we do not have favorable or contraindicating studies, in some other areas with other types of social platforms such as YouTube, Tick-Tok and in general the recommendation the videos and platforms should strengthen the management and professional supervision of related videos to accurately disseminate relevant knowledge to patients (
In short, social media can do more harm to medicine than it contributes to the treatment of patients, and so warnings about these risks are of fundamental importance.
HP: Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. JP: Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing.
The author(s) declare that no financial support was received for the research and/or publication of this article.
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
The author(s) declare that no Gen AI was used in the creation of this manuscript.
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.