Selection Criteria for the Virtual Health Information Center
With the proliferation of web sites on the Internet, a set of criteria
is needed in evaluating web sites and rejecting those that have misleading,
overly biased, or false information. Any health-related web site that
contains erroneous or misleading information can be dangerous to anyone
using the information found on it. Consequently, criteria have been
identified and used in selecting web sites for the Virtual Health Information
Center. These criteria are intended to ensure that the web sites found in the
Virtual Health Information Center have information that is safe, dependable,
and reliable.
The standard set of criteria chosen by the Memphis/Shelby County Public
Library and Information Center for judging a site for inclusion in the Virtual
Health Information Center are those developed through the work of the Health
Information Technology Institute, a part of the healthcare program of Mitretek
Systems, Inc., a nonprofit technology company working in the public interest.
This Institute convened a Health Summit Working Group which developed the
Criteria for Assessing the Quality of Health Information on the Internet, a set of seven criteria for
use in evaluating and assessing the quality of health information on the Internet.
The set of seven criteria are the following:
- Credibility: includes the source, currency, relevance/utility, and editorial review process for the information.
- Content: must be accurate and complete, and an appropriate disclaimer provided.
- Disclosure: includes informing the user of the purpose of the site, as well as any profiling or collection of information associated with using the site.
- Links: evaluated according to selection, architecture, content, and back linkages.
- Design: encompasses accessibility, logical organization (navigability), and internal search capability.
- Interactivity: includes feedback mechanisms and means for exchange of information among users.
- Caveats: clarification of whether site function is to market products and services or is a primary information content provider.
Other credible health sites with established criteria equal to or greater
than the library’s were also included in the Virtual Health Information Center.
These are sites approved by MedlinePlus and by
Healthfinder.
MedlinePlus
is a product of a joint effort of the National Library of Medicine
and the National Institutes of Health. It offers information intended for use by
the consumer, and its main emphasis is health information available from the
Government. It is considered to be the most reliable source of medical
information on the Internet.
The
Healthfinder
web site, developed by the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human
Services, is a free gateway to reliable consumer health information.
Other sites selected for inclusion are those that display the HONcode seal. The HONcode seal means that the
publishers of these web sites that have adopted the Health on the Net
Foundation Code of Conduct. The Health on the Net Foundation recognized
the problem of assessing the credibility of a publisher of a web site,
as well as the accuracy and relevance of the information found there.
Consequently, it created its Code of Conduct to help standardize the
reliability of health information on the World Wide Web. The HONcode
is not an award system; but it holds web site developers to ethical
standards and it helps make certain that readers always know the source
and purpose of the data they find on a web site.
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