How to find the good and avoid the bad or ugly: a short guide to tools for rating quality of health information on the internet * Commentary: On the way to quality

doi:10.1136/bmj.324.7337.598

BMJ 2002;324:598-602 ( 9 March )

Education and debate

How to find the good and avoid the bad or ugly: a short guide to tools for rating quality of health information on the internet

Commentary: On the way to quality

How to find the good and avoid the bad or ugly: a short guide to tools for rating quality of health information on the internet

Petra Wilson, scientific officer.

Directorate General for the Information Society (Applications relating to Health), European Commission, 1049 Brussels, Belgium

petra.wilson@cec.eu.int

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Health related websites are frequently accessed on the internet. A poll in August 2001 concluded that almost 100 million Americanadults regularly go on line for information about health care.¹As over 100 000 sites offer health related information, "tryingto get information from the internet is like drinking from a firehose, you don't even know what the source of the water is." ² ³

To help users discriminate between sites, a wide range of organisations have developed methods and tools for evaluating andrating the quality of websites. These tools aim to guide the sitedevelopers, filter content, and help consumers become discerningusers ofinformation.

A range of tools for rating quality exists, and their number has continued to grow since 1996 when the first initiatives producedcodes of conduct for health information on the internet. ⁴ ⁵ Some approaches focus on setting ethical standards and promotingthe "good" whereas other more pragmatic approaches concentrate. . . [Full text of this article]

CiteULike

Complore

Connotea

Del.icio.us Add to Digg

Digg

StumbleUpon Add to Technorati

Technorati What's this?

Relevant Article

Consumers should be encouraged to search critically
BMJ 2002 324: 0. [Full Text]

This article has been cited by other articles:

Wong, P.-S. J., Ko, Y., Sklar, G. E (2009). Identification and Evaluation of Pharmacists' Commonly Used Drug Information Sources. The Annals of Pharmacotherapy 43: 347-352 [Abstract] [Full text]
DESHPANDE, A., JADAD, A. R. (2009). Trying to Measure the Quality of Health Information on the Internet: Is It Time to Move On?. The Journal of Rheumatology 36: 1-3 [Full text]
Adams, S., Bal, R. (2009). Practicing Reliability: Reconstructing Traditional Boundaries in the Gray Areas of Health Information Review on the Web. Science Technology Human Values 34: 34-54 [Abstract]
Clauson, K. A, Polen, H. H, Boulos, M. N K., Dzenowagis, J. H (2008). Scope, Completeness, and Accuracy of Drug Information in Wikipedia. The Annals of Pharmacotherapy 42: 1814-1821 [Abstract] [Full text]
Luevorasirikul, K., Gray, N. J., Anderson, C. W. (2008). Developing a consumer evaluation tool of weight control strategy advertisements on the Internet. Health Educ Res 23: 567-575 [Abstract] [Full text]
Harrison, S., Barlow, J., Williams, G. (2007). The content and interactivity of health support group websites. Health Education Journal 66: 371-381 [Abstract]
Rahmqvist, M., Bara, A.-C. (2007). Patients retrieving additional information via the Internet: A trend analysis in a Swedish population, 2000--05. Scand J Public Health 35: 533-539 [Abstract]
Caron, S., Berton, J., Beydon, L. (2007). Quality of anaesthesia-related information accessed via Internet searches. Br J Anaesth 99: 195-201 [Abstract] [Full text]
Hargrave, D. R., Hargrave, U. A., Bouffet, E. (2006). Quality of health information on the Internet in pediatric neuro-oncology. Neuro Oncol Duke 8: 175-182 [Abstract] [Full text]
Ansani, N. T., Vogt, M., Henderson, B. A. F., Mckaveney, T. P., Weber, R. J., Smith, R. B., Burda, M., Kwoh, C. K., Osial, T. A., Starz, T. (2005). Quality of arthritis information on the Internet. Am J Health Syst Pharm 62: 1184-1189 [Abstract] [Full text]
Sheehan, N. L, Kelly, D. V, Tseng, A. L, van Heeswijk, R. P., Beique, L. C, Hughes, C. A (2003). Evaluation of HIV Drug Interaction Web Sites. The Annals of Pharmacotherapy 37: 1577-1586 [Abstract] [Full text]
Morris, C. A., Avorn, J. (2003). Internet Marketing of Herbal Products. JAMA 290: 1505-1509 [Abstract] [Full text]
Theodosiou, L., Green, J. (2003). Emerging challenges in using health information from the internet. Adv. Psychiatr. Treat. 9: 387-396 [Abstract] [Full text]
Helft, P. R., Hlubocky, F., Daugherty, C. K. (2003). American Oncologists' Views of Internet Use by Cancer Patients: A Mail Survey of American Society of Clinical Oncology Members. JCO 21: 942-947 [Abstract] [Full text]
Risk, A., Petersen, C. (2002). Health Information on the Internet: Quality Issues and International Initiatives. JAMA 287: 2713-2715 [Full text]

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Reputation as a Quality Marker: John Mack
bmj.com, 9 Mar 2002 [Full text]
Re: Reputation as a Quality Marker: Angel A. Hern�ndez-Borges, et al.
bmj.com, 12 Mar 2002 [Full text]