Introduction
Patients frequently use the internet to research medical issues or symptoms, and in some cases, they are successful responses obtaining tens of thousands of responses to a search engine query. The Health on the Net Foundation is a nonprofit organization that helps patients and clients find information on the internet (HON) (Gilchrist, 2018). To provide high-quality well-being information to the public, eight main code requirements were discussed to aid in obtaining reliable health-related data.
This essay has used the American Heart Association (AHA) website to focus on analysis and assessment using the Health on the Net coding methodology. The AHA webpage will be evaluated based on the eight major criteria linked with the HON Code of Conduct, which will include the examination of excellent healthcare data most essential to medical information (HONcode).
Identification of the Elements
For medical and health organizations, the HONcode is the most commonly recognized online guide. There are eight fundamental principles in the HONcode criterion. The following aspects are included in the concepts:
- Authoritative – Unless a clear declaration is provided that a word of the advice presented is from a non-medically certified organization, any health-related information offered on this webpage will only be delivered by clinically qualified experts.
- Complementary – The content on this page is intended to supplement, not supersede, the connection between a physician user and a current physician.
- Privacy Confidentiality – This company’s website respects the security of data about personal visitors and patients to a health – care webpage, including their identification. The shareholders of the Internet site agree to comply with or surpass the legal guidelines and standards for health information confidentiality in the nation where the Webmaster and mirror pages are hosted.
- Attribution – Wherever possible, content on this blog will be accompanied by unambiguous references to original data, as well as precise HTML links to that information. A clinical page’s last modification date will be explicitly indicated.
- Justifiability – In the way stated above in Principle 4, any statements on the advantages of a given therapy, product offered, or activity will be backed by suitable, balanced proof.
- Transparency – The web’s creators will strive to give facts in the most straightforward manner feasible, as well as contact details for users seeking additional information or assistance. The Webmaster’s email location will be prominently displayed throughout the page.
- Financial disclosure – The identification of non-commercial and commercial enterprises that have raised funds, services, or resources to this website shall be explicitly defined.
- Advertising policy – Advertising shall be explicitly acknowledged if it is a funding source. On the domain, a summary of the Internet site proprietors’ marketing strategy will be presented. Marketing and other promotional items will be displayed to viewers in a way and context that allows viewers to distinguish them from the original content generated by the site’s operator.
Application of the HON Criteria
The American Heart Association (AHA) was established in 1924 by six medical experts and is one of the country’s largest and oldest charitable organizations combating stroke and cardiovascular diseases.
The HONcode methods are applied in considerable detail in the sections below.
Authoritative
The AHA homepage meets the HONcode standards for information credibility. The AHA today has nineteen participants on its board of directors. Each delegate is featured with a picture, qualifications, title, personal background, and role engagement. This info is accessible on the AHA portal, which is located at the bottom of the pages. There are various links, including “About the AHA/ASA,” one of them. The AHA homepage specifies that its creators are both editors and writers for the articles they print. Interviews with AHA helpers who are also health care workers provide the content for the articles. The AHA union staff analytically and professionally reviews and publishes all data.
Complementary
The AHA site is distinctive and achieves the HONcode parameters by including a disclaimer stating that this web page’s material does not retain the patient’s ongoing practitioner connection. “Building better lives, free of heart stroke and heart,” says the AHA’s mission statement. Furthermore, the material is intended to assist people in improving their well-being, learning prevention facts, comprehending the risks of heart attacks and strokes, and learning about particular medical disorders. This data is intended to promote readers’ Wellness and assist them in dealing with their diseases, but it is not intended to replace the advice of a competent health expert.
Privacy
The AHA complies with the protection concept by disclosing its security policy and making it readily available via a link in the platform’s footer labeled Privacy Policy. Various subheaders in the terms & conditions deal with facts about confidentiality. The privacy notice, personal details, child confidentiality, secondary sources, how they gather and use data obtained, what additional data they reveal to others, and notifying AHA with issues are all covered under these subheadings. The Meta descriptions also include revisions to the consent form, additional privacy practices and procedures, data security and analytics, tags, and online marketing pixels.
Each section discusses how the AHA handles semi-private and private information and how they plan to use it. The American Heart Association collects information about each person’s medical history or ailments to further its aim of building healthier lifestyles free of heart attacks or strokes. The AHA complies with all confidentiality laws and guarantees that data protection is properly managed. AHA acknowledges that while they make every attempt to maintain a high degree of security across all networks, they cannot warrant the safety of other systems providers regarding malware, phishing, or other threats.
Attribution
The healthcare information on their homepage has the last adjustment date that indicates when it was refreshed and publications for the data used on the web page and any relevant links to guide the terminal user to the origin. The date when the data was modified and updated was recorded on the AHA Policy page and the Code Ethics page. The date when the data was modified and updated was recorded on the AHA Policy page and the Code Ethics page.
Justifiability
The AHA adheres to the HONcode concept and fulfills the justifiability standards. As stated in Principle 4, health content includes the last change date or last assessed date and any relevant links that direct the terminal user to the referred information.
Transparency
A “Contact Us” link may be discovered under the “About Us” tab just on the AHA webpage, which leads to a comprehensive list of contact details. Postal locations, phone numbers, home addresses, and social site contact details are all included. The content is readily available and provides the end-user with adequate guidance as they navigate the website. Directors’ email addresses can also be located at the base of the AHA blog’s news. Furthermore, the HONcode openness concept is followed by the AHA.
Financial
The monetary principle is met by the AHA web page, which openly specifies and reveals sources of funding. A link named AHA Financial Information can be located at the base of the AHA site. This page includes financial reports from FY 2014 to 2017 and details on how AHA utilizes its contribution monies to assist its purpose. PDFs of consolidated financial statements, IRS 990 forms, medicinal corporations, device manufacturers, and AHA’s entire corporate backing are examples of this. The American Heart Association (AHA) makes all reports of cash received from wealthy donors.
Policy on Advertising
The American Heart Association explicitly notes that it does not demand anything or require subscribers for open access to these articles on their internet. The nonprofit institution does not tolerate any advertising on its homepage. The “heart.org content editorial procedure” website contains this data. Because the AHA does not broadcast advertisements, it is not obligated to establish a policy on marketing.
Recommendation
As a nurse practitioner, and after carefully reviewing the American Heart Association site connected to the HONcode of Conduct principles, I would strongly suggest this Website to victims and family members as an educational tool. The AHA website conforms with and fulfills all of the standards listed above, as determined by the Health on the Net Foundation Code of Conduct (Boyer et al., 2018). This signifies that the webpage of the American Heart Association is a trusted source of well-being data. This Website’s content is simple to navigate, contains scientifically sound and reliable information, and is simple to comprehend, which is critical. Because written documents are frequently used to offer or enhance patient training, those resources must be presented understandably and appropriately for most patients.
Nursing professionals dealing with patients must continually examine the patient’s medical care literacy to ensure that the information supplied is understood. The AHA makes it clear on their webpage that the data supplied does not substitute the patient-provider connection, and they proceed to advise patients to stick with their doctors. This declaration can help reduce ethical problems if a client is harmed due to following health advice acquired on the internet.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the American Heart Association website is a trustworthy source for news that adheres to the Wellness on the Net Foundation’s Standards of Conduct. The authors of the AHA webpage met the criteria for generating reputable wellness material for end-users. The HONcode is a set of principles for site designers to adhere to ensure effective and ethical well-being. The information on the AHA homepage was easy to navigate and provided a variety of educational and analytical data. The material may be adjusted to each patient’s interests and is easy to understand. Many individuals use internet services as a basic necessity for knowledge, research, and assistance. Well-being subjects are the third most searched topic on the internet, with 72 percent of respondents confessing to looking up medical topics.
Based on the principles described in this paper, the HONcode was designed to control the worth and validity of the information supplied to customers. Internet data can be deceptive, and it can occasionally deliver harmful advice to those susceptible to incorrect facts. People regularly utilize the internet as an alternative for reliable information provided by their providers, which is alarming. Consequently, clinician professionals should become aware of the HONcode of Conduct criteria and the tools accessible through associations such as the AHA. To ensure that clients’ education and safety are preserved at the best level available, healthcare professionals are expected to deliver information to our family members and patients that are genuine, evidence-supported, and accurate.
References
Boyer, C., Selby, M., Scherrer, J., & Appel, R. (2018). The health on the Net Code of Conduct for medical and health websites. Computers In Biology and Medicine, 28(5), 603-610. Web.
Gilchrist, D. (2018). The Medic-Alert Foundation – a nonprofit health organization that protects and saves lives. International Journal of Risk and Safety in Medicine, 1(1), 53-55. Web.