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Jen-Ai Hospital Websites are in Compliance with
the HONcode (2)
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2004/06/04
BY MARK K. CHAN
TAICHUNG, JEN-AI HOSPITAL - DALI
¡@¡@Jen-Ai Hospital is the only hospital
in Taiwan that has websites that are in compliance with the
HONcode! Last year, Jen-Ai Hospital' s English website
and International Patient Center website were certified by Health
on the Net Foundation (HON); this year, the Chinese website
(http://www.jah.org.tw/)
and Baby Web (http://www.jah.org.tw/babyweb.asp)
also received the same recognition on June 4, 2004, after six
months of application.
¡@¡@Health on the Net Foundation (http://www.hon.ch)
is an international not-for-profit organization located in Switzerland.
Established in 1996, the organization regulates the ethics and
norms of health websites around the world to ensure the validity
and credibility of health-related information provided on the
Internet. As of today, approximately 4,000 websites from 72
different countries have received the HONcode international
certification. In addition, HON entered the competition for
the "eEurope Award for eHealth ¡V 2004" organized by
the European Institute of Public Administration and won the
award of "eHealth Information Tools and Services for Citizens"
in May 2004.
¡@¡@The requirement for medical and health websites to be recognized
with HONcode involves the compliance of 8 basic principles,
including the authority of the information provided, data confidentiality
and privacy, proper attribution of sources, transparency of
financial sponsorship and the importance of clearly separating
advertising from editorial content. HONcode is a self-regulatory,
voluntary certification system based on an "active seal"
concept. Dr. Ming-I Chan Liao, the Superintendent of Jen-Ai
Hospital, prepared the Traditional Chinese version of HON' s
8 ethical principles for medical and health websites - the 8
principles in Traditional Chinese is available on Jen-Ai Hospital's
Chinese website at: http://www.jah.org.tw/chinese/4_activities/2_jen-ai/2003/08/0811_ipc.asp
or on HON' s website at: http://www.hon.ch/HONcode/Chinese_traditional.
¡@¡@Jen-Ai Hospital - Dali and HON are in the midst of exploring
opportunities for further collaboration. In the future, Jen-Ai
Hospital hopes to raise the awareness of HONcode and promote
medical and health-related websites to have higher standards
in Taiwan. Moreover, Jen-Ai Hospital wishes to negotiate with
HON to become the sole consultant for websites in Traditional
Chinese to ensure that the websites with HONcode in Taiwan are
meeting the 8 principles and protecting the public's rights
in obtaining reliable health information on the Web.
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