Quality & Trustworthiness of the Medical & Health Web

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Quality & Trustworthiness of the Medical & Health Web

HON has been created for improving the quality of information intended to both patients and medical professionals for facilitating quick access to the most relevant and up-to-date medical discoveries.

HONcode is the oldest and the most used ethical and trustworthy code for medical and health related information available on Internet.The HONcode is designed for two target audiences: the general public and the web publisher, actively involving the site owner in the process of accreditation.

The HON Foundation is a Non-Governmental Organization, internationally known for its pioneering work in the field of health information ethics, notably for the establishment of its code of ethical conduct, the HONcode.

HON Facts

The HONcode is the most widely accepted reference for online health and medical publishers. Currently the HONcode is used by over 5’000 accredited websites, covering 72 countries.
HON web site http://www.healthonnet.org/ is visited by 27’000 visitors world-wide per day.

HONcode Toolbar: search engine and checker of the accreditation status

Automatically checks a site’s HONcode status when browsing health web sites. The search engine indexes only HONcode-accredited sites. HONcodeHunt currently includes millions of accredited medical and health Web pages.

What is the HONcode accreditation?

The HONcode: Principle

	Principle 1	Authority Give qualifications of authors
	Principle 2	Complementarity Information to support, not replace
	Principle 3	Confidentiality Respect the privacy of site users
	Principle 4	Attribution Cite the sources and dates of medical information
	Principle 5	Justifiability Ability to back claims
	Principle 6	Transparency Accessibility, provide valid contact details
	Principle 7	Financial disclosure Provide details of funding
	Principle 8	Advertising Clearly distinguish advertising from editorial content

The HONcode: an Accreditation System

Who can request it? Any health or medical web site, intended for patients, health workers or the general public, whether or not it has a strictly health or medical focus.

The request for accreditation is explicit and voluntary (Requests are handled through the HON website ).

Review for certification: Each request for accreditation is examined by a HONcode review committee including professional medicals. HON makes a thorough visit of the site and verifies if all eight of the HONcode ethical principles (see below) are respected. If some principles are missing in the web site, HON and the site owner work together in order to bring the site into compliance.

Active accreditation: A site which is found to respect the eight HONcode principles is given a unique dynamic seal to place on their pages. The seal is directly linked to a HONcode accreditation certificate located on the HON website.

Regular monitoring: An accredited site receives a check-up visit periodically, beginning one year after the initial accreditation, or following a complaint or technical malfunction detected by our monitoring services.

Compliance assurance: Mechanisms have been implemented in order to ensure compliance and detect violations of the HONcode. HON is the only organization to enforce its code through a formal complaint mechanism.

Safe use of the Internet

HON Foundation is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations

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Last modified: Aug 15 2008