Principle 1 - Information must be authoritative
All medical information presented on your web site must be attributed to an author and his/her training in the field must be mentioned.
This may be done on each of the pages with medical information or on an "Advisory Board" or "Editorial Board" information page.
The qualifications of the information provider (author, webmaster or editor) must be clearly stated (i.e. patient, Internet professional, medical or health professional).
If the information provider is a medical doctor, his/her specialty must be mentioned. If the author is not a medical professional, this must be clearly stated on the web site.
Note:
All acronyms relating to degrees or affiliations must be explained.
Collaborative Websites:
It must be clearly stated if the platform is moderated or not. The qualifications/credentials of the moderator(s) must be clearly stated. The true names of the moderators are not mandatory. Moderators may use pseudonyms. The frequency of the moderator's visits of to the website must be given.
It must be stated that all users are by default considered as non
medical professionals. If otherwise, it must also be stated.
It must be stated that if a health professional gives medical information as a platform user, his status as a medical professional must be identified.
It must be clearly stated that platform users and moderators must behave at all times with respect and honesty.
It must be clearly stated how the moderators intervene and how platform users may be banned. It must be stated if platform users are warned or notified before being banned.
Principle 2 - Purpose of the website
A statement clearly declaring that the information on the website is not meant to replace the advice of a health professional has to be provided. E.g. of such a statement is 'The information provided on [your web site] is designed to complement, not replace, the relationship between a patient and his/her own physician.'
A brief description of the website's mission, purpose and intended audience is necessary.
Another brief description of the organisation behind the website, its mission and its purpose is also necessary.
Collaborative Websites:
A statement clearly declaring that the information on the platform is not meant to replace the advice of a health professional has to be provided. E.g. of such a statement is 'The information provided on [ Web 2.0 platform's name ] is designed to complement, not replace, the relationship between a patient and his/her own physician.
Principle 3 - Confidentiality
This principle is applicable to all sites, even if your site does not host patient records or store any medical or personal data.
Your site must describe its privacy policy regarding how you treat confidential, private or semi-private information such as email addresses and the content of emails received from or sent to your visitors.
You must inform your visitors whether their data will be recorded in your own database, who can access this database (others, only you, nobody), if this information is used for your own statistics (anonymous or not), or if these statistics are used by third party or other companies. You must also declare if your site uses cookies.
Even if one or more of these points are not relevant to your site, you must state how you handle the following information sent to you by your visitors: (email addresses or/and contact information, names, personal or medical data).
Note:
-In the section describing your privacy policy, mention for which countries the site undertakes to honour or exceed the legal requirements for medical/health information privacy.
Collaborative Websites:
The platform must have a privacy policy. It must underline the fact that everyone can read a post and use its content.
It must be clearly stated if the platform user has the possibility to modify or erase his posts.
Principle 4 - Information must be documented: Referenced and dated
All medical content (page or article) has to have a specific date of creation and a last modification date.
Date of last modification must also be included on every page describing ethical and legal information, author(s), mission, and the intended audience.
All sources of the medical content must be given. You have to clearly indicate the recognized, scientific or official sources of health information quoted in your articles. If you used another website, a book, an article, a database or any other support, it has to be specified. You have to provide a precise link to the source, whenever it is possible and the references should be in relation with the content referred.
Note: The last time the whole site was updated or the copyright date only, are not sufficient to comply with this principle. The 'last update' date should not be set to automatically display the current date.
-Depending on the website and its content, you may gather a bibliography instead of having a specific source for each medical article or page. This bibliography should clearly outline each reference to each medical subject.
Collaborative Websites
A statement asking platform users to give references (links for ex.) to the health/medical information they provide, when relevant, must be provided.
All posts must be automatically dated.
Principle 5 - Justification of claims
All information about the benefits or performance of any treatment (medical and/or surgical), commercial product or service are considered as claims. All claims have to be backed up with scientific evidence (medical journals, reports or others).
All medical information must be balanced.
All brand names have to be identified (with for example). Unless the purpose of the site is clearly stated to be the commercial platform of a particular product, it must include alternative therapies or products (including generics).
Collaborative Websites:
All information about the benefits or performance of any treatment (medical and/or surgical), commercial product or service are considered as claims.
A statement asking platform users to give sources and proves (links, medical journals, reports for ex,) to their health/medical claims, when relevant, must be provided.
It must be clearly stated that platform users must post information which are true and correct to their knowledge.
Principle 6 - Website contact details
The website must be operational and the information must be accessible and clearly presented.
There must be a way to contact the editor, such as a working email address or contact form, for visitors who would like to have more details or support. This contact must be easy to access from anywhere on the site.
You must give an individual and prompt answer to any website visitors' enquiries.
Principle 7 - Disclosure of funding sources
Your site must include a statement declaring its sources of funding. This is required for all sites, including personal sites with no external sources of funds, and sites funded by government agencies, pharmaceutical companies or other commercial entities.
All funding must be declared: government agency, private companies, donations, etc.
You also have to declare all conflicts of interest.
Collaborative Websites:
It must be clearly stated if the moderators are volunteers or not.
Principle 8 - Advertising policy
All websites displaying paying banners have to have an advertising policy. This policy must explain how the site distinguishes between editorial and advertising content and which advertisements are accepted. Any conflict of interest has to be explained.
Any non-paying banner or "friendly" link should also be distinguished from editorial content by a label such as "banner" or "friendly banner". A policy should also be provided to explain to readers that these banners are not advertisements but have been provided for further reference or other purposes.
If the site does not display advertisements, a clear statement has to indicate that the site does not host or receive funding from advertising or from the display of commercial content.
All advertisements and any promotional, commercial or information in the form of articles, or display advertisements (banners or logos), have to be clearly indicated and easily identifiable as such, and distinguished from the editorial content. All advertising (including, but not limited to, pop-up windows and banners) have to be identified with the word "Advertising" or similar identifying clearly the sponsor.
If banners are served from a free web hosting service or 'banner exchange', the webmaster must clearly state that the advertising banners are from the free Web host and are not endorsed by the site editor.
Note:
Advertising is hosted at the responsibility of the editor. Sites that display advertisements for pornographic web sites (even if not under their direct control, such as with 'banner exchange' services) will be removed from the HONcode certification process and all HON databases.
Collaborative Websites:
An advertising and editorial policy about platform user's posts must be provided.
It must be clearly stated if advertisement (links, banners, content, etc.) is permitted or not on the platform.
See also pages:
Character Eduction
and
Character Education Lesson
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