Health On the Net Foundation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Health On the Net
HON multilingual portal provides access to trustworthy online medical information.
Screenshot of HON portal.
URL www.healthonnet.org
Commercial? No
Type of site Trusted health search engine
Available language(s) 52 languages
Owner Health On the Net Foundation
Launched September 15, 1995 (1995-09-15)
Current status perpetual work-in-progress

Health On the Net Foundation (HON) is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1995 under the auspices of the Geneva Ministry of Health and based in Switzerland. This came about following the gathering of 36 experts to discuss the growing concerns over the unequal quality of online health information. The mission of the foundation is to help both laypersons and medical practitioners find useful and reliable medical and health information online.

HON Foundation issued a code of conduct (HONcode) for medical and health Web sites to address reliability and usefulness of medical information on the Internet. HONCode is not designed to rate the veracity of the information provided by a Web site. Rather, the code only states that the site holds to the standards, so that readers can know the source and purpose of the medical information presented. It is the oldest and the most used ethical and trustworthy code for medical and health related information available on the Internet.

The principles of the HONcode are:

  1. Authority - information and advice given only by medical professionals with credentials of author/s, or a clear statement if this is not the case
  2. Complementarity - information and help are to support, not replace, patient-healthcare professional relationships which is the desired means of contact
  3. Confidentiality - how the site treats personal and non-personal information of readers
  4. Attribution - references to source of information (URL if available online)and dates when pages was last updated
  5. Justifiability - any treatment, product or service must be supported by balanced, well-referenced scientific information
  6. Transparency of authorship - contact information, preferably including email addresses, of authors should be available
  7. Transparency of sponsorship - sources of funding for the site
  8. Honesty in advertising and editorial policy - details about advertising on the site and clear distinction between advertised and editorial material

Currently the HONcode is used by over 5’000 certified websites, covering 72 countries and has been translated into 34 languages. It is used to sensitize web publishers to the need for quality information and create awareness in health professionals and so, help guide their patients to trustworthy health information.

HON also provides two databases of trustworthy health information, one on eye diseases and the other on general medical conditions. Provisu.ch is a database of reliable health information on all eye diseases and is accessible by those with poor or no vision through its variability of letter size and audio version. Santeromande.ch is an extensive database, mainly directed towards the French speaking public of Switzerland and neighbouring France and provides reliable health information, directory of registered health professionals, medical centers or hospitals, medical associations and federal organizations.

Health On the Net Foundation was granted on 23 July 2002 NGO status by the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. HON also has a partnership at the French governmental level, when it was accredited in 2007 by the French National Authority (HAS) to be the official certifying body for all French health websites.

[edit] Controversy

A journal article raised a number of problems with the HONcode logo, indicating that consumers may mistake it as an award or interpret it as an indicator for assessed information. Other issues with the HONcode logo were discussed in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMiR), a peer-reviewed eHealth journal. JMIR article Websites which are not in compliance with HONcode can continue to display the logo, as Health On the Net Foundation (HON) has no means of obligating the offending webmaster to remove the logo. Clicking on that logo (for verification) will not indicate that the site is out of compliance, as HONcode only indicates that sites are "undergoing annual review". Hence, websites which are not in compliance with HONcode may still be displaying the HONcode logo, calling into question the entire principle of HONcode. Other problems with the application of the HONcode principles are that HON does not have a means of verifying many of the principles, such as credentials (medical or otherwise) as stated on websites displaying the logo, or that copyright or confidentiality is not violated by webmasters. HONcode relies on the webmaster for honest representations about compliance with the principles.

In recent times however, HON has developed ways to counteract the abuse of the HONcode. One of these is the use of an active and dynamic logo which shows its validity and reflects the site compliance in real time. In addition, all medical credentials are verified through national databases of registered medical professionals. HON has always encouraged the internet community to demand for quality health information and the general public plays a large role in the policing of the HONcode by HON.

[edit] External links