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KMID : 0358120020280010089
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Journal of the Korean Public Health Association
2002 Volume.28 No. 1 p.89 ~ p.94
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Quality Management for Health Information Sites on the Internet
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Sohn Ae-Ree
Lee Seok-Min
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Abstract
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The Internet has given rise to an information revolution. Through the Internet the public in South Korea has access to a growing supply of information on health and disease. In South Korea, 92% of those who can use the computer use the Internet in 2001. An estimated 22.23 million number used the Internet in 2001. The number has increased rapidly compared to 1.63 million in 1997. Health information is often said to be one of the most retrieved types of information on the Internet. However, a concern has emerged for the quality of health information documents contained on the World Wide Web. Lack of evaluation and oversight, and ease of publication, have led to inaccurate and misleading health-related publications on the Internet. For those seeking easy ways to identify high-quality and reliable information rating systems to evaluate the quality of health information on the internet should be provided and developed. Given this background, the purpose of this study was to provide criteria and quality management for health information sites on the internet. This article reviews and discusses elements to evaluate health information sites on the internet. The criteria include quality of content (currency, references, readability, etc.), authorship (identification of authors and contributors, author credentials), purpose, design and aesthetics, functionality, contact address and feedback mechanism, and privacy. The criteria suggested may be useful to providers and users of health information on the Internet. The criteria have been developed with the understanding that they will require ongoing reevaluation and frequent revision to keep pace with evolving technology and practices on the internet. There is a need to develop simple criteria that the general people can understand and use. To achieve quality assurance of health information, a combination of centralized and decentralized approaches can be used. The Government should make an effort to make health information policies on the Internet. Third parties or peer review should evaluate and rate health information. Labeling and filtering software programs such as PIGS (platform for internet content selection) should be developed to help for professionals and customers to find easily valuable health information.
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KEYWORD
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Health Information, World Wide Web, Internet, Evaluation, Web Site, and Quality Management
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FullTexts / Linksout information
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Listed journal information
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