Quality
Criteria for Health Related Websites
Europes health ministers met in May 2003 in Brussels, to discuss the
monitoring of health related websites.
Some 186 million people used the internet in Europe alone in january
2003.
To help maintain standards of information accessed by people, the european
Commission is circulating a report named “Quality criteria for
health-related websites” as part of work expected to be completed
by 2005.
Draft guidelines are as follows:-
Suggested Quality Criteria-
- Transparency and honesty
- Provider of the site should be clear(name, address);
- Purpose of the site (including advertising ) clearly defined;
- Target audience defined;
- Funding sources clear (grants/non profit/voluntary aid)
- Authority
- Statement of sources of information;
- Date of publication of source;
- Credentials of providers of information
- Privacy
- Privacy,confidentiality and security policy including personal data storage
- Accountability
- User feedback should be possible;
- Responsible partnering-all
efforts should be made to link only to trustworthy individuals
and organisations who comply with codes of good practice;
- Editorial policy-clear for selection of material used
- Accessibility
- There should be attention to guidelines on use of a site .
- Site should meet standards eg for searches/reading/usability
Please bear these factors in mind whenever you access a health related
site.
If in doubt about a site, refer to these guidelines to help you.
