Media statements

Health information on the Internet you can trust! - HON/MRC collaboration (Medical Research Council, Cape Town, South Africa and Health On the Net Foundation, Geneva, Switzerland)

Individuals can be guaranteed of trustworthy health information on the Internet by simply looking for the HONcode seal of certification on a Web site. The South African Medical Research Council (MRC) is now the Health On the Net (HON) accreditation centre for health and medical Web sites of English speaking countries in Africa.

The MRC project leader Hendra van Zyl declares: "to be the chosen HON accreditation centre for English speaking African countries is a wonderful achievement and prestigious occasion for the SA Medical Research Council. We are very proud and looking forward to playing an active and productive role in HON."

There is a vast amount of medical information on the Internet, some of it excellent, but some of it of variable quality and intent. While the Internet has become the most widely-used communication media, with the availability of Web server software, anyone can set up a Web site and publish any kind of data which is then accessible to all.

"To disseminate and make information of quality easily accessible and adapted to local needs is our priority (according to an American study led in July 2005, 74% of the Net surfers seek medical and health information). We believe that the deployment of the HONcode by the MRC for English speaking African countries will offer locally quality, reliable and suitable medical and health online content for improving the citizen wellness ", adds Celia Boyer.

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. For ten years, HON has focused on the essential question of the provision of health information to citizens, information that respects ethical standards. To cope with the unprecedented volume of healthcare information available on the Net, the HONcode of conduct (http://www.healthonnet.org/Conduct.html) offers a multi-stakeholder consensus on standards to protect citizens from misleading health information.

The MRC would now be assisting Web site developers in English-speaking African countries in adhering to this code of conduct in order to standardise the reliability of medical and health information available on the World Wide Web, especially for African users.

More about the Web and Media Technologies Division of the MRC
The Web & Media Technologies Division of the MRC (www.mrc.ac.za) draws on two cross-cutting disciplines, Informatics and Knowledge Management (IKM), and Consumer Health Informatics (CHI). The MRC works to both conduct research and implement solutions for the MRC and other information and knowledge generating organisations.