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Jen-Ai Hospital - Dali Receives Certificate of HONcode Accreditation
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2007/10/25
BY MARK K. CHAN
TAICHUNG, JEN-AI HOSPITAL - DALI
¡@¡@Earlier this year, Jen-Ai Hospital Websites were recertified by Health on the Net Foundation (HON), as HONcode needs to be re-accredited on a yearly basis( http://www.hon.ch/HONcode/Conduct.html?HONConduct945686 & http://www.hon.ch/HONcode/Conduct.html?HONConduct315342 ). Celebrating its 12th year of existence, HON Foundation implemented one of its latest endeavors in 2007, which is the Certificate of HONcode Accreditation on paper format ( http://www.hon.ch/Global/Press/HONcodeCertifPaper.html ). The purpose of such development is: 1 to further provide proof of quality and reliability; 2. to provide distinction of HONcode certification for websites that have been accredited for more than a year; and 3. to improve visibility of the HONcode certificate and HONcode accreditation. According to HON Foundation, currently only 143 sites have received this certificate, thus far. In other words, Jen-Ai Hospital is one of the growing number of medical information providers that strive to provide the most reliable and trustworthy medical information for its users in Taiwan.
¡@¡@HONcode, created by Health on the Net Foundation in 1996, addresses one of Internet's main healthcare issues: the reliability and credibility of medical and health-related information on the Web. The HONcode aims to raise the quality of healthcare information available on the Net. It is a self-regulatory, voluntary certification system based on an "active seal" concept. While primarily intended for healthcare site developers and publishers, the blue-and-red HONcode seal on subscribing sites also helps users identify sources of reliable information. Some 5,000 websites are now formal HONcode subscribers, covering 72 countries. HON web site is visited by 27,000 visitors worldwide per day. In Taiwan, there are only 9 websites that adhere to the HONcode (2 of these websites are Jen-Ai Hospital websites).
¡@¡@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. The HONcode now exists in 32 language versions. In order to raise the quality and reliability of healthcare information available on the Internet in Taiwan, Dr. Ming-I Chan Liao, the ex-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 HON's website at: http://www.hon.ch/HONcode/Chinese_traditional.
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