Judge: web sites for health - consumer guidelines - how to judge

	2.0 How to judge:

		2.1 Trust and reputation 2.2 Who produced the site 2.3 Purpose of the site 2.4 Funding sources 2.5 Date 2.6 How the information is written 2.7 Descriptions of conditions and treatments 2.8 Medical research 2.9 Personal experiences 2.10 Foreign sites 2.11 Communication 2.12 Links 2.13 Disclaimers 2.14 Kitemarks 2.15 Design 2.16 Interactive facilities 2.17 Other quality guidelines

2.11 Communication

Methods to make contact with the organisation should be available, for example, an e-mail address, a postal address, a phone number, electronic forms.

Look for any limits placed on this communication.

Are phone helplines only staffed for fixed time periods?
(a) Can you leave messages on an answerphone?
(b) Will you receive a reply?
(c) How many days before you can expect an answer?
Are e-mail support services only staffed for fixed time periods?
(a) Will you receive a reply?
(b) How many days before you can expect an answer?

Communication is a particular strength of support group sites. Professional and government sites are far less likely to provide personal communication.

You also need to be able to contact the Web site manager, to report technical problems and to provide comments about the site.

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© Copyright for this site is held by Contact a Family and the Information Society Research and Consultancy Group, School of Computing, Engineering and Information Sciences, Northumbria University. Site published February 2003. Last updated October 2006. Review date October 2007.