Award Winning Patient Education Web Site: Uterine Fibroid Embolization

Uterine fibroids are an extremely common and serious condition, affecting as many as 40% of women over age 35 and resulting in hundreds of thousands of surgeries and more than 165,000 hysterectomies a year as women seek relief from their painful symptoms. Interventional radiologists have developed an alternative for treating fibroids, uterine fibroid embolization (UFE). UFE does not require surgery or removal of the uterus, and it’s successful about 80% to 95% of the time.

As research on UFE was published and reported by news media, demand for information by women grew quickly. The Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) felt it was important to put UFE in perspective. While UFE is an excellent alternative to surgery for many women, the Society wanted to develop patient education material that explained both the benefits and the limitations of the procedure. The Society also felt it was essential to enable women to locate physicians who were knowledgeable about UFE and who had experience in performing the procedure.

PCI worked with SIR to develop a consumer information website on UFE. The goal was to create a site that offers easily understandable, accurate and reliable information that women can trust. The site provides an overview of uterine fibroids and discusses the many choices available to treat the condition, including fibroid embolization. It includes basic information on the procedure; case histories of women who have had UFE with varying outcomes; a bibliography of peer‑reviewed articles and presentations on the procedure; and a locator service that directs women to physicians who have the credential to perform UFE.

SIR did not have extensive resources for the website and opted for a basic format with reliable, factual information, and that was easy to navigate and visually appealing, with clear graphics that were able to load quickly.

The site was registered with search engines and announced in a news release at a SIR annual meeting. Almost immediately, the site drew an average of 5,400 visitors a month and SIR members have had hundreds of contacts from women wanting more information. The site has won two awards, a World Wide Web Health Award and a Silver Anvil Award.