Assessment of Content for HealthInsite

The following information describes the HealthInsite assessment process for new information partners. There are links at the bottom of this page to a partnership enquiry form for requesting more information about the HealthInsite assessment process; electronic copies of the assessment forms for printing or emailing; and the HealthInsite online partner application facility, for completing the forms and assessment process online. Please note that only Australian organisations may apply to become HealthInsite information partners.

Overview

Websites which have been put forward for approval to be accessed through HealthInsite must go through the HealthInsite quality assessment process. This involves assessment by the information partner, the HealthInsite Editorial Team and the HealthInsite Editorial Board.

Websites are usually assessed as a whole, although sometimes only a section or specified items on a website may be submitted for assessment. Assessment does not include pages outside the site that are linked from the site being assessed.

Once a new information partner site has been approved by the HealthInsite Editorial Board, future resources which have been prepared according to the HealthInsite standards and the information partner site's quality process may be added to the HealthInsite database without further approval from the Editorial Board.  However, the HealthInsite Editorial Team will monitor the approval of those resources.

The assessment process involves the completion of two forms: an Assessment Checklist covering compliance with HealthInsite publishing standards and related selection criteria, and a Quality Process form for providing details of the quality process used by the organisation responsible for the website being assessed.The forms may be completed and returned to the HealthInsite Editorial Team by email or on paper (RTF version or PDF version ), or may be submitted using the online information partner application facility. [Note: If your Internet browser has trouble opening the Word or PDF documents, try saving the document to a file by doing a right mouse click over the link, and then selecting 'save target as'].

In addition to their use in the HealthInsite assessment process, the criteria may assist information partners in the internal review and development of their web sites.

HealthInsite Publishing Standards and Assessment Checklist

The Assessment Checklist is used to assess the compliance of the potential information partner's website against the  HealthInsite  Publishing Standards  and a range of relevant World Wide Web health information quality criteria. Each section of the Checklist relates includes ‘required’ and, in some cases, ‘desirable’ criteria. Not all ‘desirable’ criteria will be relevant to all potential information partners. The 'Steps in the Assessment Process' section of this document provides more details on the level of compliance required for approval of new information partners.

The criteria in the Checklist cover:

  • quality of information, including clearance and review processes, qualifications of authors, accuracy, appropriateness for intended audience and documentation of source
  • authority, authentication and disclosure
  • currency
  • document formats
  • navigation
  • aesthetics/design
  • accessibility
  • innovation

Quality Process form

Documentation of the quality process used in developing the information partner's website and the information available on the site must be provided to the HealthInsite Editorial Team for approval by the Editorial Board. The 'Steps in the Assessment Process' section of this document provides more details on the process for providing this information. The Quality Process form may be completed by the potential information partner, or by the HealthInsite Editorial Team using information provided by the potential partner. The information may be obtained from other documents that have previously been prepared by the organisation. When completing the Quality Process form or forwarding relevant documents to the HealthInsite Editorial Team to complete the form, information must be included about the mandatory and desirable attributes of the organisation's quality process. These include:

Mandatory attributes

  • Includes a policy that each resource is authored by a person or group with appropriate qualifications/experience (incl. Names or positions/ qualifications/experience)
  • Includes a procedure for appropriate attribution of resources
  • Includes a review process (with capacity for review prior to initial placement onto the site and at appropriate intervals to ensure currency). Needs to cite positions/qualifications/names of who reviews
  • Details the final approval process (including responsibility/qualifications)
  • Addresses conflict of interest
  • Includes a policy on advertising
  • Includes a process for consumer consultation and/or audience testing
  • Includes a process to ensure maintenance of metadata for resources accessed through HealthInsite

Desirable attributes

  • Provides a basis of decisions to provide information
  • Provides background information on organisation
  • Provides a statement of aims/objectives of organisation/information
  • Includes a process to check compliance with standards (e.g. HealthInsite, internal, W3C)

Steps in the assessment process

Step 1: Self-assessment by the potential information partner

The potential Information Partner should complete the site details section and partner columns of the Assessment Checklist. The form may be completed and returned to the HealthInsite Editorial Team by email or on paper, or may be submitted using the online information partner application facility. If the form is submitted by email or on paper, documentation of the quality process used by the organisation in developing its web site content should also be sent with the form.

Step 2: Assessment by the Editorial Team

The HealthInsite Editorial Team will complete the ‘Editorial Team’ columns of the Assessment Checklist, a summary of the Assessment Checklist and the details for the Quality Process form if they have not already been completed by the potential partner. The summary of the Assessment Checklist and the Quality Process form will then be presented to the next meeting of the Editorial Board.

If there are significant discrepancies between the partner’s and the Editorial Team’s assessments these will be discussed with the potential information partner before assessment by the Editorial Board.

Overall assessment of each section of the Assessment Checklist is based on the criteria listed in that section. To be given a rating of ‘acceptable’ for a section, the website and the information on it must clearly meet any ‘required’ criteria listed in that section and should meet some or all of the ‘desirable’ criteria. To be given a rating of ‘acceptable with reservations’, the website and the information on it must generally meet the ‘required’ criteria in that section, but with some reservations. For example, there may be inconsistency or ambiguity across the resources on the site. To be given a rating of ‘Not acceptable’, the resources must clearly fail to meet the ‘required’ criteria in that section, even if some or all of the ‘desirable’ criteria are met.

Step 3: Assessment by the Editorial Board

The Editorial Board section in the Quality Process form will be completed following discussion of the information partner assessment at the Editorial Board meeting.

Reasons for any ‘no’ decisions will be documented in that section of the form.

To be approved for access through HealthInsite, the site must achieve a rating of ‘acceptable’ or ‘acceptable with reservations’ for each criterion in the summary of Assessment Checklist AND receive a ‘yes’ decision from the Board for each mandatory item in the Quality Process form.

Step 4: Notification of the Board's decision to the Information Partner

Following assessment by the Editorial Board, the information partner will be notified of the outcome by the Editorial Team on behalf of the Board. Reasons for rejection or deferral of approval will be discussed with the information partner and advice provided on appropriate upgrading or alteration of some or all of the site for possible approval at a later date.

Step 5: Signing of the Deed of Agreement and creation of records for HealthInsite

Following approval by the Editorial Board and agreement by the information partner to the terms of the draft Deed of Agreement, two final copies of the Deed will be signed by the department’s delegate and forwarded to the information partner for signing. One copy of the signed Deed will be returned to the Editorial Team for filing.

The Editorial Team will discuss arrangement for the creation and maintenance of metadata with each information partner to ensure that the HealthInsite database is kept up-to-date.

Definitions

HealthInsite information partners are organisations such as peak health organisations, government agencies, consumer groups, community agencies and educational and research institutions, which have entered into a Deed of Agreement to provide information and links for HealthInsite.

The HealthInsite Editorial Board is responsible for editorial control over the content accessed through HealthInsite.

The HealthInsite Editorial Team, which supports the Editorial Board, is a unit of the Australian Department of Health and Ageing.

A resource is a discrete item of content for HealthInsite such as a document, image, video or multimedia item.

Publishing Standards for HealthInsite defines required and recommended standards for quality of information, authentication, technical issues and accessibility. The Assessment Checklist criteria are closely linked to those standards.

URL is the Uniform Resource Locator used to address web resources.

Starting the partnership application process

If you are interested in applying to become a HealthInsite information partner, select one of the options below:

I would like to read and complete the assessment form offline, download PDF* or RTF and return the completed forms to the  HealthInsite  Editorial Team

OR

I am ready to start completing the HealthInsite assessment forms online (links to online partner assessment facility) 

OR

I would like to discuss a possible information partnership with the HealthInsite Editorial Team (links to simple partner nomination form)

getacro.gif * You will need to have the Adobe Acrobat reader installed on your computer to view this file. The Adobe Acrobat Reader is available free of charge from Adobe's website 

Assessment of Content for HealthInsite, v10, June 2005

Reviewed October 2006

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