• Interested people apply to judge (assess) awards/ratings of Internet health information sites. The Institute refers to these judges as 'assessors.'
• The HIIQA Advisory Board reviews volunteers' application to determine if they are qualified to be assessors. The Institute refers to qualified applicants collectively as the 'volunteer assessment panel.'
• Each calendar quarter, the Institute assesses newly-identified awards/ratings and reassesses awards/ratings that it assessed a year previously (to keep assessments up-to-date).
• The Institute selects a panel of 5 experts from among members of the volunteer assessment panel to assess a batch of upto 5 awards/ratings. The Institutes selects these assessors so as to produce a panel of experts who, to the extent practical, work for different types of organizations, and who live in different parts of the country.
• Each panel member assesses each award/rating using HIIQA standards/guidelines. They record their assessments on a structured form designed for this purpose. The Institute asks experts to assess an award/rating only if they do not have an actual or potential conflict of interest.
• Institute staff summarize experts' individual standard-by-standard assessments.
• If a majority of expert assessors say that a standard or guidelines is met, the Institute considers that the award/ratings meets that standard/guideline. Awards/ratings that meet all applicable standards receive the HIIQA. The Institute has determined that a guideline should be met, but that it is not necessary to meet it in order to receive the HIIQA.
• Assessors provide feedback to improve the HIIQA process, including HIIQA standards/guidelines.

To the next step in the process

To volunteer for the assessment panel.