Reputable Health Information

The amount of information available on genetics and genomics and its application in healthcare is growing extremely quickly. Many tests are becoming available through healthcare systems and as products available directly to consumers online and at locations such as pharmacies.

Consumers are more and more interested and knowledgeable about their health and patients are much more involved in decision making about their treatment and care. This means people need to be able to access reliable health information and have ways of assessing the quality of information they find online.

This website cannot provide personalised medical advice to individuals about their condition or treatment but below are a few resources from different countries where reputable health information is available as well as guides on how to assess information available online.

Health information sites

Australia

An Australian government-funded service, providing quality, approved health information. Healthdirect's content is developed using a content governance framework and is certified as complying with the Health on the Net (HON) Foundation’s Code of Conduct (see below for further information). 

 

United Kingdom

 The official website of the National Health Service in England. NHS Choices has been certified as a producer of reliable health and social care information by The Information Standard (see below for further information). Language assistance is available.

 

United States of America

CDC is the America’s health protection agency. This website provides specific disease and condition information as well as advice on health living and much more. Language assistance is also available on this site.

 

Standards and guides to accessing health information online

 

Standards

The Health On the Net Foundation (HON) promotes and guides the deployment of useful and reliable online health information, and its appropriate and efficient use. Created in 1995, HON is a non-profit, non-governmental organization, accredited to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. Alongside the Code of Conduct (HONcode), HON also offers specialized medical search engines through HONsearch to facilitate locating certified health information websites.

The Information Standard is a certification scheme for health and social care information which has been established by the UK Department of Health to help patients and the public make informed choices about their lifestyle, their condition and their options for treatment and care. 

Guides

 

The development of these resources was supported by the Global Genomic Medicine Initiative (G2MC) and the Australian Genomics Health Alliance (Australian Genomics)