Judge: web sites for health - support group guidelines - how to produce

	1.0 How to produce:

		1.1 Trust and reputation 1.2 Details of the organisation 1.3 Purpose of the organisation 1.4 Associated organisations 1.5 Funding sources 1.6 The way the information is written 1.7 Non-English language material 1.8 Descriptions of conditions and treatments 1.9 Medical research 1.10 Personal experiences 1.11 Communication 1.12 Links to other sites 1.13 Data protection 1.14 Copyright 1.15 Terms and conditions 1.16 Disclaimers 1.17 Kitemarks 1.18 Advertising 1.19 Interactive facilities 1.20 Other quality guidelines

1.17 Kitemarks

Obtaining endorsement from other organisations, demonstrated by the presence of their logo, or kitemark, on your site, can be helpful, but it is not a requirement. The absence of a kitemark is not necessarily a sign of poor quality. Only a minority of sites apply for them.

Kitemarks can mean many different things. The criteria used to judge sites will vary between the endorsing organisations. The presence of such an award cannot be taken as a guarantee of the accuracy of the health information on the site.

Here are some examples of common kitemarks.

Health On the Net Foundation Code of Conduct (HONcode) (http://www.hon.ch/HONcode/Conduct.html) [Opens in new browser window]
HON is a not-for-profit International Swiss Organisation. It has produced a set of eight ethical principles, the HONcode, that Web site producers should abide by. However it does not rate the quality of the information provided by a Web site. Approved organisations can place an active logo on their site. When a person clicks on this logo they will see a page on the HON site with details of the current status of the organisation.
Bobby (http://www.mardiros.net/bobby-accessibility-tool.html) [Opens in new browser window]
Bobby is a software tool that Web site producers can use to check that their site is accessible to people with disabilities.
The British Medical Association (BMA) Patient Information Award (http://www.bma.org.uk/ap.nsf/Content/
LIBBMAPatientInformationAward) [Opens in new browser window]
The BMA Patient Information Award is part of the BMA Medical Book Competition. A separate category for consumer Web sites has existed from 2000.
Plain English Campaign Internet Crystal Mark (http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/internetcrystalmark.html) [Opens in new browser window];
National Library for the Blind Visionary Design Awards (http://www.visionary-design.org/) [Opens in new browser window].

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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.