Since its beginning 12 years ago, the Health On the Net Foundation (HON) has come to be a widely recognized name, associated with quality online health information.
Not only has HON grown in terms of implementation of its services, but also has increased its liaisons worldwide to include the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations (UN), where it has consultative status to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC).
Today, we are proud to announce our collaboration with the French National Authority for Health (Haute Autorité de Santé - HAS), which chose HON to be the official certifying body of all French health websites.
In view of its pioneering work and long expertise, the HON Foundation has been chosen by the HAS to implement the certification of French health websites according to the French bill passed on the 13 August 2004. This certification will be performed by HON through the implementation of the HONcode (a set of established by HON).
"Our certification (provided free of charge) is concise while giving guidance towards conformity and is unique in its kind" said HON Executive Director Celia Boyer. She added "The HONcode enables the identification of sites of quality and confidence, thus contributing towards the general improvement of trustworthy information and Web sites, as well as helping the user in his search for health information."
France is the first government to have taken the initiative of standardizing the quality of the available online health information which will benefit the French public through the provision of a pool of trustworthy health information.
"The collaboration between HON and HAS reinforces the need for reliable and trustworthy health information and thus, the necessity for quality standardizing bodies like the HON foundation" stated HON President, Professor Antoine Geissbühler.
More information:
The (HAS) - or French National Authority for Health - was set up by the French government in August 2004 in order to bring together under a single roof, a number of activities designed to improve the quality of patient care and to guarantee equity within the healthcare system. HAS activities are diverse. They range from assessment of drugs, medical devices, and procedures to publication of guidelines to accreditation of healthcare organisations and certification of doctors.
A selection of Newspaper articles includes:
A selection of Radio broadcasts includes:
HON accredited by the French National Health Authority