QHII HWR strategy

Quality of health information on the internet (QHII)
Health Website Ratings (HWR) project: Ratings strategy

The purpose of the health website ratings project is to develop and to evaluate the utility to consumers of independent ratings of health websites. By various estimates, there may be more than 100,000 health-oriented websites that could be rated. This number is far more than can be rated practically; certainly within the resources available to the HWR project. Thus, HII/CRW adopted the following strategy for rating health websites:

Select "high-priority" websites to be rated, those whose ratings provide the greatest value to consumers (which generally means selecting the most-trafficked websites of a specified type).
Elaborate practical rating worksheets that capture essential descriptive information and produce independent ratings based on criteria derived from
- ConsumerReportsWebwatch "credibility guidelines"
- Institute research and experience.
Rate high-priority health websites, and periodically re-rate previously rated websites
Post resultant ratings on the ratings website, and publicize postings.
Solicit feedback from raters and consumers
Analyze and evaluate feedback, and use experience gained in rating health websites, to revise the methodology developed to select and rate health websites, display ratings, and publicize results.