A Case for Pharmaceutical Web Site Accreditation
Vol. 1, No. 1: January 2002
SUMMARY
Full Text Version
In July 2001, URAC (aka American Accreditation HealthCare Commission) approved a set of standards for health Web site accreditation. These standards, which cover privacy, security, quality of information, fairness of transactions and professional conduct, borrow heavily from the e-Health Code of Ethics of the Internet Healthcare Coalition.
There are thousands of health Web sites on the Internet. Accreditation is not an appropriate path for all these sites to take, but for those sites that can afford it and that meet rigorous standards for quality and accountability, accreditation can help distinguish them from their competitors and increase consumer trust. Pharmaceutical sites focusing on consumers, in particular, stand to benefit.
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