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Cited by 461Health Literacy and Information AccessibilityMisinformation and Its ImpactsInformation Retrieval and Search Behavior

Towards quality management of medical information on the internet: evaluation, labelling, and filtering of informationHallmarks for quality of informationQuality on the internetAssuring quality and relevance of internet information in the real world

Open access
Eysenbach, Gunther, Gray, J A Muir, Bonati, Maurizio, Arunachalam, Subbiah, Diepgen, Thomas L, Impicciatore, Piero, Pandolfini, Chiara·1998·BMJ
DOI 10.1136/bmj.317.7171.1496PMC PMC1114339
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Abstract

# Towards quality management of medical information on the internet: evaluation, labelling, and filtering of information {#article-title-2} The principal dilemma of the internet is that, while its anarchic nature is desirable for fostering open debate without censorship, this raises questions about the quality of information available, which could inhibit its usefulness. While the internet allows “medical minority interest groups to access information of critical interest to them so that morbidity in these rare conditions can be lessened,”1 it also gives quacks such as the “cancer healer” Ryke Geerd Hamer a platform (http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/3374/index.htm).2–4 Quality is defined as “the totality of characteristics of an entity that bear on its ability to satisfy stated and implied needs.”5 For quality to be evaluated, these needs have to be defined and translated into a set of quantitatively or qualitatively stated requirements for the characteristics of an entity that reflect the stated and implied needs. So how can we define consumers' “needs” in the case of medical information on the internet? The quality of medical information is particularly important because misinformation could be a matter of life or death.6 Thus, studies investigating the “quality of medical information” on the various internet venues—websites,7 mailing lists and newsgroups, 8 9 and in email communication between patients and doctors10—are mostly driven by the concern of possible endangerment for patients by low quality medical information. Thus, quality control measures should aim for the Hippocratic injunction “first, do no harm.” Most papers published so far about the problem of quality of medical internet information focus on assessing reliability, but, as box 1 shows, this should be only one aspect of quality measures aiming for “first, do no harm.” Another should be to provide context. Although these two problems are different in nature and different measures may be proposed to solve them, we discuss a common measure that could … Correspondence to: Dr Bonati

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Research works printed but not linked: 6

  1. [12]12. Krauskopf T, Miller J, Resnick P, Treese GW. Label syntax and communi- cation protocols. World Wide Web J 1996;1(4):45-69. (http://w3.org/ PICS/labels.html [28 Aug 1997].)
  2. [13]13. Miller J, Resnick P, Singer D. Rating services and rating systems (and their machine-readable descriptions). World Wide Web J 1996;1(4):23-43. (http://w3.org/PICS/services.html [28 Aug 1997].)
  3. [21]21. Morris TA, Guard RJ, Marine SA, Schick L, Haag D, Tsipis G, et al. Approaching equity in consumer health information delivery: NetWell- ness. J Am Med Inf Assoc 1997;4:6-13.
  4. [22]22. Wyatt JC. Commentary: measuring quality and impact of the world wide web. BMJ 1997;314:1879-81.
  5. [23]23. Impicciatore P, Pandolfini C, Casella N, Bonati M. Reliability of health information for the public on the world wide web: systematic survey of advice on managing fever in children at home. BMJ 1997;314:1875-81.
  6. [24]24. Jadad AR, Gagliardi A. Rating health information on the internet. Navi- gating to knowledge or to Babel? JAMA 1998;279:611-4.

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Authors
Eysenbach, G., Gray, J. A. M., Bonati, M., Arunachalam, S., Diepgen, T. L., Impicciatore, P., & Pandolfini, C.
Affiliations
Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research (IT)
ORCID
Venue
BMJ
Publisher
BMJ
Published
1998-11-28
Volume
317
Issue
7171
Pages
1496-1502
ISSN
  • 0007-1447 (ISSN-L)
  • 0959-8138
  • 1468-5833
DOI
10.1136/bmj.317.7171.1496
PMC
PMC1114339
OpenAlex
W2080271974
Cited by
461
References
26
Citations by year
2025: 4 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 16 · 2013: 18 · 2012: 13
FWCI
10.37
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
www.bmj.com/company/legal-information/terms-conditions/legal-information/tdm-licencepolicy (tdm)
Locations
  • BMJ (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • HighWire Press Open Archive (submittedVersion)
  • DigitalGeorgetown (Georgetown University Library) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health Literacy and Information Accessibility
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Misinformation and Its Impacts
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Information Retrieval and Search Behavior
Keywords
online health information, quality management, information evaluation, information filtering, misinformation, reliability, context, patient safety, online health information sources
MeSH terms
Medical Informatics, Quality Control, Reference Standards, Information Storage and Retrieval, Internet

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