Website Analysis Health Care Professional Drug Information Analysis on By Mark Taouk

FIRST IMPRESSIONS 1. Is the user able to quickly determine the basic content of the site? No 12 Partially 34 Yes 5 2. User is able to determine the intended audience of the site? No 12 Partially 34 Yes 5

First impressions…. Comments: The home page does indicate under the main title that it is “Online Learning for the Mental Health Professional”, however does not make clear the content within the internet site. The user will be more distracted with “News Flash” or “Course catalogue” headings in the middle of the home page and can easily miss the “Resource center” icon which ultimately contains the information that the health care professional needs. However, due to the specific sub- heading “Online Learning for the Mental Health Professional”, the user is easily able to determine the intended audience of the site.

RELIABILITY 3. Are the aims clear? No 12 Partially 34 Yes 5 4. Does it achieve its aims? No 12 Partially 34 Yes 5

RELIABILITY 5. Is the information evidence based? No 12 Partially 34 Yes 5 6. Does the website provide good coverage of information? No 12 Partially 34 Yes 5

RELIABILITY 7. Is the information relevant? No 12 Partially 34 Yes 5

Reliability… Comments: The aim of the web site is made clear on the home page. The first paragraph on the home page gives a brief description on what the purpose of the site is. The web site does achieve its aim because it provides links with all the topics that are associated with mental health ranging from eating disorders to addictions. The information given for the HCP about the medications is evidence based because they are drug monographs based on research. The internet site provides excellent coverage on the different medications available for treatment, as well as other information related to mental health. This information is all relevant and serves its purpose.

AUTHORITY 8. Is it clear who is responsible for the contents of the page? No 12 Partially 34 Yes 5 9. Is it clear who wrote the material and are the author's qualifications for writing on this topic clearly stated? No 12 Partially 34 Yes 5

Authority… Comments The web page outlines the institution responsible for the site and gives the details of personnel to contact, however the internet site does not mention who generated the internet site. The actual information on medications for the HCP on depression are external links, and most of the information that is obtained is made clear of the author, and the author’s qualifications for writing on this topic is also clearly stated.

INFORMATION VALUE 10. Does it provide a good description of the condition or treatment protocol? No 12 Partially 34 Yes Does it outline criteria for diagnosis of condition or criteria for appropriate prescription of treatment? No 12 Partially 34 Yes 5

INFORMATION VALUE 12. Does it describe how each treatment works? No 12 Partially 34 Yes Does it describe the benefits of each treatment? No 12 Partially 34 Yes 5

INFORMATION VALUE 14. Does it describe alternative treatments, or other diagnoses possible? No 12 Partially 34 Yes Does it detail the typical prognoses of condition, associated risks; treatment risks? No 12 Partially 34 Yes 5

INFORMATION VALUE 16. Does it avoid inaccurate or misleading descriptions, recommendations? No 12 Partially 34 Yes Does it provide contacts for questions, support groups, or more information? No 12 Partially 34 Yes 5

Information value… Comments The section of the internet site that I am interested is treatments, however upon reviewing all other sections of the internet site it was discovered that only a brief treatment protocol is outlined, which lack a lot of detail. The internet site provides appropriate prescription treatment for each of the medication listed. This is ideal for a HCP who wants to know reliable information about a drug. Each drug listed has a detailed summary of its pharmacology, thus outlining its mechanism of action, and how this would benefit the patient.

Information value… Comments the web site lists the alternative treatments however does not list them in any particular order eg. first line or second line treatment. since the information on each drug is presented as a drug monograph, then there is detailed warnings and precautions about the drug outlined. All the information presented is facts and derived from research. This eliminates any misleading or false information. The internet page is good in that it provides the contact details of the corporation responsible for the site, it also provides the contact details of counselor’s and social workers that some people may find useful.

ACCURACY 18. Are the sources for any factual information clearly listed so they can be verified in another source? No 12 Partially 34 Yes Is the information free of grammatical, spelling, and typographical errors? No 12 Partially 34 Yes 5

ACCURACY 20. Is it clear who has the ultimate responsibility for the accuracy of the content of the material? No 12 Partially 34 Yes If there are charts and/or graphs containing statistical data, are the charts and/or graphs clearly labeled and easy to read? No n/an/a Partially n/an/a Yes n/a

Accuracy… Comments The sub section on the web page which contains information on medication for the HCP does specifically indicate the source of the information, it only mentions that the information is from a Canadian monograph. However other information on the web page such as information about the disease state does list specific references.

Accuracy… Comments The web page shows superior grammatical context, is free of spelling errors or typographical errors which further supports its claim as being a site for the HCP. It is hard to determine who is clearly responsible for the content of the information since the site was generated by a corporation, however, the actual data or information is actually linked to that website, and is part of another website. So is it fair to say that the exploepsych.com is responsible because they claim to provide this information? Or, should the linked site be responsible because they generated the information?

CURRENCY 22. Are there dates on the page to indicate when the page was written, first placed on the Web, and when it was last revised? No 12 Partially 34 Yes If material is presented in graphs and/or charts, is it clearly stated when the data was gathered? No n/an/a Partially n/an/a Yes n/a

Currency… Comments The internet site home page shows no indication of when the page was written, and shows no indication of when it was last updated. After a thorough search within the web site, it could not be determined when the internet site was written, or updated.

PRESENTATION 24. Is the information clearly communicated? No 12 Partially 34 Yes Is information summarised and/or bullet- pointed ? No 12 Partially 34 Yes 5

PRESENTATION 26. Were the lines of type clearly spaced? No 12 Partially 34 Yes Are unrelated sections clearly separated? No 12 Partially 34 Yes 5

PRESENTATION 28. Are diagrams and images labeled and do they relate to the subject matter? No 12 Partially 34 Yes Is there a single style of design and layout maintained throughout? No 12 Partially 34 Yes 5

Presentation… Comments The actual information about medication for depression is clearly communicated, however reaching this information is not. It would be better if the headings leading to the information are more specific in relation to their content. The information is presented very well. There is a summary of the main headings listed in which each heading is linked to the relevant section in the bulk of the information. This provides a very efficient way of navigating thru data.

Presentation… Comments The text on the internet page are typed clearly and evenly spaced. Different or unrelated sections are presented separately thus making it easy for the viewer to understand and extract information. The site does not have many diagrams or graphics, however, of the little diagrams present they are not labeled and do not have anything to do with the information on the internet page.

Presentation… Comments The internet site maintains a single style layout throughout the site, with the most common characteristic being the horizontal menu on top of each page which leads to other sections on the within the site. This uniformity is however lost when external links to the site are selected.

APPEARANCE OF TEXT 30. Was 12pt font or larger used?(Recommended that no less than 10 pt font is used for the main body of text) No 12 Partially 34 Yes Was a dark typeface on a pale background used? No 12 Partially 34 Yes 5

APPEARANCE OF TEXT 32. Was bold used for emphasis only? No 12 Partially 34 Yes Were italics not used for long passages? No 12 Partially 34 Yes 5

APPEARANCE OF TEXT 34. Was underlining avoided ? No 12 Partially 34 Yes Was UPPER CASE used sparingly ? No 12 Partially 34 Yes 5

Appearance of text… Comments The majority of the text throughout the internet site is size 12 font. Sub-headings have a larger font mostly being size 28. The bulk information has a font size of 12 which can easily be read. Further contributing to how clear the text is visually is the fact that dark text was used on a light background. Headings are in a dark blue, and the bulk of the text is in black all on a white background.

Appearance of text… Comments Bold was not used for emphasis in this site. It only appeared to be used for sub-headings, or to highlight a search topic if it is to be performed. Italics were not used for long passages, in fact, italics were hardly used in the internet site at all. Underlining is avoided in this site, the only underlining that can be seen is under words that are linked to something else. Upper case was used sparingly within this site. It was only used at the beginning of words on sub-headings, and used appropriately when it came to the bulk text.

CONTENT 36. Was jargon avoided ? No 12 Partially 34 Yes Were acronyms, abbreviations and specialist terms explained (eg in a glossary)? No 12 Partially 34 Yes 5

CONTENT 38. Is the information balanced and unbiased? No 12 Partially 34 Yes 5

Content… Comments The text contains no jargon, only factual information, written in the standard for the HCP. Acronyms are prevalent however are explained in brackets following the acronym. There are not many abbreviations within the text. The advantage of text being like this is that you don’t have to be a HCP to understand the text, and more importantly the information. The information consists of mostly facts that are derived from research, so the information is not bias in nature.

FURTHER INFORMATION 39. Are there links to other sites that are relevant to the users’ needs/ purposes? No 12 Partially 34 Yes Are the links to other sites current and working properly ? No 12 Partially 34 Yes 5

Further Information… Comments As mentioned earlier there are a large number of links from this site. They are all relevant to the HCP and range in topic from medication which is what I am looking at to diagnosing. The external links are all functioning and working properly, offering information which is accurate and up to date.

OVERALL RATING OF THE PUBLICATION Total score = 158/200 (Very good!) 41. Based on the answers to all of the above questions, rate the overall quality of the publication as a source of information about treatment choices Low Moderate High Serious or extensive shortcomings Potentially important but not serious shortcomings Minimal shortcomings 12345

Comment on the overall rating… is a sight that meets the requirements of the Health Care Professional. It provides accurate and precise information on a wide variety of drugs used un depression. The internet site is consistent throughout and structured consistently making it easy to navigate and extract information. `The site contains may links which are related and useful to its user and provide information to the level a health care professional expects.

Comment on the overall rating… There are some areas on the web page that can use some improvement. A user does not know the content in the website if he/she does not browse into the sites sub-sections. Also, finding the information required is not simple, it requires the user to click on a heading that is not obvious. The internet site does not contain much graphics, so its not visually stimulating. Although it is intended for the HCP, some related graphics should be applied.

Comment on the overall rating… The internet site provides an excellent range of information on different medications, however it does not put these medications in context i.e.. it doesn’t state what medication should be used in what situation. Although all the information on the internet site is up to date, there is no indication of when the internet site was last updated. Further more, it doesn’t state when the internet site was generated or posted which can leave someone wondering about the reliability of the information.