The problems of judging the quality of medical and healthcare sites were discussed by us in 1997 at the 18th Annual National Online Meeting in New York City.  The title of our paper at this conference was “Organizing the Chaotic Medical Internet.”   Similar papers from many other authors and medical Internet sites were discussed.  

Noteworthy sources of criteria can be found in “Health on the Net Foundation” (http://www.hon.ch) and Consumer Health – A Guide to Internet Information, 2nd Edition, edited by Jana Liebermann, AHIP, Medical Library Association, (http://www.mlanet.org).

By 2004, we settled on the following criteria for the Internet Medical Directory: Homepage Banner Titles, Site Addresses, and Menus must be relevant to the purpose of the site.  The individuals and corporate organizations responsible for the site information must be clear and easy to find.   Copyright information must refer to the site owner, institution, and responsible site designer. The sponsors must be clearly identified.