Bethesda, Maryland (January 7, 2003) — Health Improvement Institute and Consumer WebWatch have announced a partnership to enable consumers to become more informed users of health websites.

Under the partnership, Health Improvement Institute will review existing health websites to document potential consumer problems and best practices, create user-friendly disclosure templates for use by webmasters, and develop sets of criteria that can be used to rate health-oriented websites.

Health Improvement Institute is a non-profit, tax exempt, 501(c)3, charitable organization dedicated to improving the quality and productivity of America's health care. The Institute's primary goal is to provide information to patients, providers, payors, purchasers, policy-makers, and the public about available alternatives to ensure that all Americans have the opportunity to make informed health care choices. The Institute is best known for its annual awards competitions, including the Aesculapius Award for excellence in health communication.

The Consumer WebWatch mission is to investigate, to inform, and to improve the credibility of information on the Web. ConsumerWebWatch.org is home to research and analysis on issues of credibility, usability and content, along with news of use to consumers navigating the Web. Consumer WebWatch is a project of Consumers Union, the non-profit publisher of Consumer Reports magazine and ConsumerReports.org. It is supported by grants from The Pew Charitable Trusts, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, and the Open Society Institute.

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For more information about the project, please contact Awards Coordinator at 301-320-0971 or by email hii@hii.org. For more information on:
• Health Improvement Institute, please visit our web site — http://www.hii.org
• Consumer WebWatch, visit — http://www.consumerwebwatch.org.