Empowering citizens in assessing health related websites: a driving factor for healthcare governance

Information and access to information are critical issues in healthcare governance. Increasingly citizens are searching for health information on the Internet. The Internet can act as an enabler to empower citizens in their health management. However, one of the problems that citizens face is that of evaluating (health) information. User guidance tools available to citizens are often difficult to apply and can vary greatly in their contents and presentation. Filtering tools and accreditation labels, although sparse, and not always familiar to the citizens, are found to offer more advantages than user guidance tools. The development of filtering tools and accreditation labels needs to be sustained and prioritised in order to ensure that citizens are well equipped to assess health information on the Internet, and empowered with accurate health information. This has great implications for healthcare governance, specifically with regards to increasing public participation, achieving equality of information and of access to information, and integrating Internet-;based information facilities to other healthcare services.