Judging Quality

Just as one would evaluate a medical journal or any other article appearing in printed media, it is important to look at a number of things to assess the reliability of a document or a site.  Some questions to ask when evaluating a document are:

• Who runs the site?  Is it run by a well-known non-profit institution, a branch of the federal government, by a health system, a commercial organization or an individual?
• Who or what pays for the site?  Is it supported with public funds, donations or by commercial advertising?  Is it supported by sales to site visitors?  If it is sales driven, do sales appear to influence the content?
• Who is the author of the content?  When looking at health information, does the site identify the organizational source of the information?  Does it identify the author?
• How current is the content?  Are there dates on the document and is it current?
• Is it at an appropriate reading level?  This is important if you are giving the document to your patient.  Different patients have different abilities of comprehension.

None of these are make or break issues but are things to keep in mind when assessing the reliability of a document.