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

2.1 Trust and reputation

In normal life we make judgments based on our trust in an organisation or an individual. This is true of Web sites too, for example:

the Web site of a well-known, reputable organisation;

the Web site of an organisation you already know and trust;

Web sites recommended by a health professional;

Web sites recommended by a support group.

Developing your knowledge about the reputation of organisations and sites is a matter of experience. You need to search widely and get to know the types of sites available.

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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.