Hälsa på webben. Utvärdering av interaktiva svenska hälsosajter för allmänheten.
Health on the Internet is a growing subject and many different organisations and companies offer customers various kinds of medical functions on the web. A common service is to offer users to ask questions and get answers from doctors cooperating with the health sites. There is however little knowledge of how much the health sites actually are used, and by whom. Several authorities and organisations both in Sweden, Europe and in the USA are investigating whether it is necessary to bring forward a certificating authority with the right to judge and examine all the health sites on the web. WHO, the World Health Organisation, proposed a solution for this, which was refused. Several organisations have elaborated rules, so called Codes of Conduct, containing regulations for how health sites should be designed. These rules are meant to be followed voluntarily by members of the organisations, and not to be supervised by any governmental authority. In this essay I have gathered some of this rules to a list with criteria, which are applicated to a couple of Swedish health sites offering interaction to the general public. The criteria examine how the health sites deal with certain important aspects, concerning integrity of the users, commercial sponsors and cooperations, how the interaction between the user and the health sites works, how the material on the health sites is updated, which sources are used, and how the doctors answering questions are named. The results of my evaluation of the health sites show that there are several shortcomings concerning how the health sites present what policies they have for sponsors and cooperators they have, information of dates and updatings of the material etc. A study from the National Board of Health and Welfare in Sweden shows similar results.