Research your Way to Good Health with
the Internet
What Kind of Health Information is
on the Internet?
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Information on health conditions and diseases
Medical and surgical treatment information
Information about medications and their side-effects
Clinical trial postings
Medical dictionaries
Medical encyclopedias
Herbal remedies and alternative medicine
Medical organization and association web sites
How To Tell the Good from the Bad
Web site evaluation criteria 1.
Who runs the site?
2.
Who pays for the site?
3.
What is the purpose of the site?
4.
Where does the information come from?
5.
What is the basis of the information?
6.
How is the information selected?
7.
How current is the information?
8.
How does the site choose links to other sites?
9.
What information about you does the site collect, and why?
10. How does the site manage interactions with visitors?
-”Ten Things to Know about Evaluating Medical Resources on the Web,” National
Cancer Institute, http://www.cancer.gov/cancerinfo/ten-things-to-know,
viewed 5/7/03.
The Criteria
1. Who runs the site?
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Ex. – MEDLINEplus http://medlineplus.gov
Header on all MEDLINEplus pages
– “A service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine
and the National Institutes of Health.”
• Footer
– Links to both organizations are located at the
bottom of each page.
The Criteria
2. Who pays for the site?
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The URL ends in .gov which indicates
that the site is sponsored by the federal
government.
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Some other kinds of sites:
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.com indicates a corporate site, ex. http://www.merck.com
.edu indicates a site affiliated with an educational institution,
ex. http://www.harvard.edu
.org indicates a non-profit organization’s website,
ex. http://www.americanheart.org
The Criteria
3. What is the purpose of the site?
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“MEDLINEplus is designed to help you
find appropriate, authoritative health
information.”
• http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/crite
ria.html
The Criteria
4. Where does the information come from?
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http://medlineplus.gov/
NLM
NIH
ADAM (Encyclopedia)
Merriam-Webster (Dictionary)
News (Reuters)
Various health organizations & their websites
The Criteria
5. What is the basis of the information?
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Varies by link
• Research links sections tend to have more
evidence based links
– Ex. of evidence:
» http://cis.nci.nih.gov/fact/5_6.htm
» http://www.marchofdimes.com/professionals
/681_1189.asp
The Criteria
6. How is the information selected?
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/criteria.html
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The site mainly uses full-text publications
produced by the NIH and other federal
government organizations
External links are also chosen based on
criteria listed under “selection criteria”
(see criteria #8).
The Criteria
7. How current is the information?
– MEDLINEplus pages list last updated date
at bottom.
• Most pages have been reviewed or updated
within the last 2-3 years.
– Ex.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/antioxidant
s.html
The Criteria
8. How does the site choose links to other sites?
– MEDLINEplus http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/criteria.h
tml
• Their criteria:
– Quality, authority and accuracy of content
– Purpose of site is educational, not selling a product
and offers information free of charge
– Availability and maintenance of the web page
– Special features
The Criteria
9.
What information about you does the site collect,
and why?
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Ex. MEDLINEplus http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/privacy.htm
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Privacy Statement located in the Privacy link at the bottom of each
page. It states that they collect the following information:
– IP address from which you access the Internet
– Date and time you viewed their page or pages
– Internet address of the Web site from which you linked directly
to their site
– Name of the file or the words you searched
– Browser used to access their site.
– Any information you personally provide to them.
The Criteria
10. How does the site manage interactions
with visitors?
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Ex. MEDLINEplus - http://medlineplus.gov
• “Contact Us” button top of pages in the
header.
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Email form to be filled out by the user.
No personal information is required
Only ask for an email address if you want a reply
The direct email address is also provided in case
the form does not work.
Helpful Evaluation Web Sites
• National Institute of Cancer http://www.cancer.gov/cancerinfo/ten-things-to-know
• MEDLINEPlus http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/healthywebsurfi
ng.html
• Health on the Net Foundation (HON) Site Checker http://www.hon.ch/HONcode/HONcode_check.html
• Quackwatch - http://www.quackwatch.org/index.html
Trusted Lists of Websites
• CAPHIS -
http://caphis.mlanet.org/consumer/consumergeneral.html
• Faulkner Patient/Family Resource Center http://www.faulknerhospital.org/resources_links.html
• MGH Blum Patient and Family Learning
Center - http://www.massgeneral.org/pflc/consumer.asp