Quality Criteria for Health Related Websites

As many of you know, these guidelines were open for discussion through October 2001. Thank you for the many comments.

Comments were very constructive, and in particular drew attention to the need for additional specific criteria for health sites.

All comments are addressed in the forthcoming Communication from the Commission to the Council, European Parliament, Economic & Social Committee, and Committee of Regions, due to be published in June 2002 under the Spanish Presidency. The Communication will include a final statement of “Criteria for Basic Good Conduct in the Development & Maintenance of Health Related Websites”. All issues of implementation are to be addressed at the Member State or local level.

Objectives of the Guidelines

• To develop guidelines on quality criteria for health related websites which may be used to guide Member States in possible implementation of quality assurance measures for the health related Internet.
• The guidelines should address issues of both supplier and user education: one document that simultaneously tells suppliers how to comply with key quality criteria and educates users as to what they ought to expect from a good health website.
• The guidelines should be made applicable to both passive information giving sites as well as sites that allow for transactions between service or information providers and users (i.e. information, products and services).
• The guidelines should encourage compliance with other current guidelines, EU directives and technical standards relevant to this area.

Draft Guidelines on Quality Criteria for Health Related Websites

Transparency and Honesty

• Transparency of provider of site - name, physical address and electronic address of the person or organisation responsible for the site.
• Transparency of purpose and objective of the site (including any commercial purposes).
• Target audience clearly defined (further detail on purpose, multiple audience could be defined at different levels).
• Transparency of sources of funding for site (grants, sponsors, advertisers, non-profit, voluntary assistance).

Authority

• Clear statement of sources for all information provided and date of publication of source.
• Name and credentials of all human/institutional providers of information put up on the site, including dates at which credentials were received.

Privacy

• Privacy, security and confidentiality policy and systems to be clearly defined, including required opt-in for the storage of any personal data.

Currency

• Clear and regular updating of the site, with up-date date clearly displayed for each page and/or item as relevant.

Accountability

• Accountability - user feedback, and appropriate oversight responsibility (such as a key quality compliance officer for each site).
• Responsible partnering - all efforts should be made to ensure that partnering or linking to other websites is undertaken only with trustworthy individuals and organisations who themselves comply with relevant codes of good practice.
• Editorial policy - clear statement describing what procedure was used for selection of content.

Accessibility

• Accessibility - attention to guidelines on physical accessibility as well as general findability, searchability, readability, usability, etc.
  

Definitions

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This page was last updated on 27/01/2010.