1. Finding Quality Health Information On The Internet
Angela Drayton
Assistant Librarian, YDH
(Adapted from a presentation by
Carol-Anne Regan, Library Manager, MPH)

2. Information overload?

3. Quality Standards http://www.hon.ch/honcode/

5. Patient Info http://patient.info/health

6. NHS Choices http://www.nhs.uk/pages/home.aspx

7. What About Websites With No Quality Standards?

8. Judging Websites Without Quality Standards
www
W = Who?
W = What?
W = Where?

9. WHO? Look At The “About Us” Section Who are the authors/publishers?
What are their qualifications?
What are their reasons for publishing? Are they giving unbiased information or selling product?
Do other websites link to them?
Look At The “About Us” Section

10. NHS Choices: What we do http://www. nhs

11. WHAT? Look At “Last Updated” Section What is on the site?
Is the information relevant to the subject?
Is it linked to evidence? (references)
Is it up to date?
Look At “Last Updated” Section
Check links to other information: are they broken/out of date?

12. Asthma information http://patient.info/health/asthma-leaflet

13. WHERE? Look At The Web Address (URL)
What part of the world is the website from?
NB: sometimes the statistics quoted or the treatment may not be relevant to the UK
Look At The Web Address (URL)
This will indicate the country of origin and type of organisation

14. Web Address or Domain Name
.au = Australia .ca = Canada .de = Germany
.com = international company
.co = company (eg; .co.uk)
.nhs.uk = an NHS site
.org = organisation (includes charities)
.ac or .sch or .ed = an educational site
.gov = a government site

15. Internet Medicines http://www. nhs

16. Counterfeit Drugs
From 1 July 2015, any online seller of medicines based in Europe needs to be registered with their respective national regulator and display a common European logo. In the UK, this means that medicine retailers must be registered with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).

17. RPS Logo
To help you identify a legitimate pharmacy website, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society has produced an internet pharmacy logo that acts as a visual aid for people who wish to buy medicines online. Only bona fide registered pharmacies providing professional services in Great Britain are entitled to display the logo.

18. Boots Online http://www. boots

19. Avoiding Scam Advice http://www. nhs

20. Action Fraud http://www.actionfraud.police.uk/fraud-az-medical-scams

21. General Scam Advice http://www.met.police.uk/docs/little_book_scam.pdf

22. Somerset Choices www.somersetchoices.org.uk

23. Yeovil District Hospital http://www. yeovilhospital. co

24. Thank You For Listening 