Table 1 Health portal goals and selection guidelines

Canadian Health Network

"CHN's mission is to support Canadians in making informed choices about their health, by providing access to multiple sources of credible and practical e-health information."

• Does the organization have timely and credible information on health promotion and disease prevention?

• Is authorship clearly stated?

• If the source is not a professionally or legally accredited authority, is there sufficient supporting information to establish an informed perspective.

• If a non-professional gives medical information, is this fact clearly stated?

• Are original sources clearly referenced?

• Are claims relating to the benefits of a specific health promotion/disease prevention services supported by appropriate, balanced evidence?

• Is the content original, and of sufficient depth to warrant a link?

• Is the resource relevant to the CHN mission statement?

• Is the information updated or reviewed on an adequate basis given the content?

• If the resource only presents one-side of a controversial issue, is this made explicit?

HealthInsite

"(HealthInsite) aims to improve the health of Australians by providing easy access to quality information about human health."

Sites must have a written policy and procedure that

• Includes a policy that each resource is authored by a person or group with appropriate qualifications/experience

• Includes a procedure for appropriate attribution of resources

• Includes a review process. The policy needs to cite positions/qualifications/names of who reviews

• Details the final approval process (including responsibility/qualifications)

• The date of publication and, where appropriate, date of previous versions must also be given.

Medline Plus

"MedlinePlus is designed to help you find appropriate, authoritative health information."

• The source of the content is established, respected and dependable. A list of advisory board members or consultants is published on the site.

• The information provided is appropriate to the audience level, well-organized and easy to use.

• Information is from primary resources (i.e., textual material, abstracts, Web pages).

• The primary purpose of the Web page is educational and not to sell a product or service.

• The source for the contents of the Web page(s) and the entity responsible for maintaining the Web site is clear.

• Information is current or an update date is included.

• The site provides unique information to the topic with a minimum of redundancy and overlap between resources.

NHS Direct Online

To provide high quality health information and advice for the people of England and Wales