Monica Bensberg <[log in to unmask]> asked yesterday:

Could you point me in the direction of web sites relating to the
quality and consumer health information? Or any great self-help or
disease management web sites for consumers? Thanks

Dear Monica,

I am not exactly sure what you are asking for with your two questions.
There are web sites which rate the "quality of health information web
sites" and then of course, there are web sites which offer (very
broadly defined) health information, and more specific ones (although
a growing and seemingly endless supply of these) which offer disease
specific information. These latter ones may or may not touch on
management and most simply are kinda descriptive.

The reason I make the distinction here is that while there may very
well be an endless list of sites offering "health information" (and
here I will assume you mean the more limited "medical" information,
rather than the broad determinants of health ...for these I am sure
our resident DOH expert Dennis Raphael can help), there are very few
that actually tell people how to rate the quality of such sites. In
Canada, the Canadian Health Network
(http://www.canadianhealthnetwork.org), a pseudo coalition made up of
our national department of health and other health organizations from
across the country has attempted to do that I think to some extent.
With the help of our friends at The Health Communication Unit
(http://www.thcu.ca) they came up with some criteria for you to judge
yourself the quality of information on web sites.

Here's a snippet from the CHN site:

The Internet offers a richness of information, but wading through hit
after hit to find the best information can be difficult. How can you
know what's good information and what's less reliable? In consultation
with a panel of experts in health information, CHN has put together
two checklists to help you evaluate the information you find:

How to find the most trustworthy health information Web sites. CHN
thinks it's important that you trust the information you find online.
This first checklist is intended to help you decide about the quality
of a health information Web site.

What to look for in a health promoting Web site. Being able to have
more control over and improve our health is what health promotion is
all about. How do you know if you are looking at a health promoting
Web site? This checklist can help you to consider three elements:
the content the site is providing (the "what");
the processes/actions it is suggesting you take (the "how");
the values it seems to be based on.

Now I really haven't answered your question yet have I? Do I know of
self-help or disease management sites? The reason I did not answer is
because there are tons out there! You might have to be more specific.
Or are you looking for directories? Just do a search on virtually any
disease and you'll be bombarded with hits. Some are good, others are
terrible. Some are advocacy sites trying to help support those
afflicted with the disease, others are mostly just descriptive medical
sites (I remember one particularly good UK site that did not preach
and took a very appropriate approach stating "we don't have all the
answers, but here's what we do know").

The question I think is no longer is the information out there? It
likely is at least somewhere (although the more you search and the
more you wade through a gazillions bits of information, the more you
realize we don't know much ;-). There are probably a bunch of meta
directories too (maybe more what you are looking for?) Some are even
commercial in nature now and/or sponsored by ....three guesses and
first two don't count ...the pharmaceutical industry. Now I'll stop my
droning here and ask another question back to click4HPers out there:

Does anyone know of any sites (Canadian or from any other country) or
maybe rather meta directories that Monica can take a peek at? Sorry
for the long-winded reply Monica. Hope the CHN stuff is at least
somewhat useful.

Best to all,
JM

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