Quality Health Websites

When selecting quality health information websites, you want to get information from a trusted source. Reading people's opinions on websites or blogs may be interesting, but their information may not be correct. Look for websites with the ending .gov (connected with the government) or .edu (schools). 

The National Institute of Health offers several suggestions to determine whether a website can be trusted. Ask yourself these questions about the website. If something doesn’t seem right, perhaps the information isn't true.

1. Who runs the website? Can you easily find that info?
2. Who writes the information on the website? Is it looked by others of the same job?
3. How current is the info? Can you find a date on the site?
4. What is the reason behind the website? Is it just informational or is it trying to sell something?
5. Does the site have a privacy policy? Can you find it?
6. Does the information on the website seem too good to be true?

Some well-known websites for health information include those from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Mayo Clinic, or National Institute of Health (NIH). 

https://www.cdc.gov/   CDC  

https://www.mayoclinic.org/   Mayo Clinic

https://www.nih.gov/   National Institute of Health

https://www.fda.gov/   US Food and Drug Administration

https://www.medicare.gov/  Medicare 

You can also use the HON (Health on the Net) to determine if a website is a good one.

Many health websites will be HON certified if they are trustworthy. 

Simply go to this website https://www.hon.ch/pat.html and click "Trustworthy Medical Information" under the "HONsearch" heading. From there you can search for websites and see if the one you are looking at meets their standards. 

Or simply click here: https://www.hon.ch/HONsearch/Patients/hunt.html