Health On the Net (HON) Foundation, the non-profit organization that oversees the HONcode, the oldest and most widely used ethical and trustworthy code for medical- and health-related information on the Internet, recently launched a new and improved certificate for medical and health web sites [1]. The new certificate is an initiative to further enhance the HONcode certification system and to encourage health and medical information seekers to be more critical when searching for information online. It is also intended to advance the ethical use and promotion of health and medical data among online information providers.

The HONcode is the most broadly accepted reference for online health and medical publishers. Health or medical web sites holding HONcode certification ensures its visitors that it follows primary ethical standards in its presentation of information, based on eight basic principles:

1. Authority – Indicate the qualifications of the author(s).
2. Complementarity – Information should support, not replace, the doctor-patient relationship, which is the desired means of contact.
3. Privacy – Respect the privacy and confidentiality of personal data submitted to the site by the visitor.
4. Attribution – Cite the source(s) of published information, date and medical and health pages.
5. Justifiability – The website must back up claims relating to benefits and performance.
6. Transparency – Accessible presentation, accurate email contact of authors.
7. Financial disclosure – Sponsorship should be transparent and funding sources identified.
8. Advertising policy – Clearly distinguish advertising from editorial content.

Sites that have been approved by HON and follow the ethical standards in the presentation of information can display a HONcode seal. Currently, the HONcode is used by over 7,200 certified web sites — including Highlight HEALTH — covering 102 countries.

The new HONcode certificate

The new HONcode certificate retains features provided in the original one: basic information about the web site, the date of certification and both initial and recent review dates. In addition, it now displays indications used by the HON Foundation during the site evaluation, with sample extracts from the web site that demonstrate how it follows the HONcode (click on the image to see Highlight HEALTH’s certificate).

Although the certificate states that “this information has been extracted manually by the HONcode evaluation team during the manual evaluation of the website”, we found several inaccuracies with Highlight HEALTH’s certificate. Notably, although the mission of Highlight HEALTH is described on our About page, the new HONcode certificate instead references a recent article on Medpedia. Our About page also describes the purpose of Highlight HEALTH, but this isn’t reflected in the HONcode certificate. Lastly, although we have an advertising policy, the section labeled Advertising policy is blank.

Although some details clearly need to be addressed, the new certificate nevertheless enhances the HONcode system by providing additional, detailed information to better inform healthcare seekers.

HON is conducting a study on Internet use for health/medical purposes

During the month of July, the HON Foundation is inviting individuals and medical professionals to participate in its Summer 2010 survey, which focuses on how the Internet is being used for health and medical purposes. The survey includes questions on how a person searches the Internet for disease information, how a person places importance on various health web site characteristics and how a person typically behaves when faced with situations involving the Internet and health information.

To take part in the survey, visit http://www.hon.ch/Survey2010/

To communicate and promote the goals of the Health On the Net Foundation, HON is now on Facebook and Twitter. Be sure to fan or follow them and support their endeavors.

References

1. HON launches new certificate. Health On the Net Foundation press release. 2010 Jun 21.

Urbanization is one of the greatest health challenges facing with world in the 21st century. Today, over 3 billion people live in cities. Between 1995 and 2005, the urban population of developing countries grew by ~165,000 people every day [1]. In 2007, the world’s population living in cities actually surpassed 50% for the first time in history. As city populations around the world continue to grow, unplanned or mismanaged urbanization can have health security and safety consequences.

World Health Day is meant to draw worldwide attention to the theme of urbanization and health, and to engage governments, international organizations, businesses and civil society in a shared effort to place health at the center of urban policy. Thus, the 1000 Cities, 1000 Lives campaign for World Health Day 2010 calls upon cities during the week of April 7 — April 11 to open up portions of streets to promote health activities.

There are two goals to the campaign:

• 1000 cities: to open up public spaces to health, whether it be activities in parks, town hall meetings, clean-up campaigns, or closing off portions of streets to motorized vehicles.
• 1000 lives: to collect 1000 stories of urban health champions who have taken action and had a significant impact on health in their cities.

So far, 1,392 cities in 133 countries have joined the campaign, and have committed to closing off one or more streets to motor vehicles for a day this week and offering citizens a novel public space for physical exercise, meeting family, friends and community, health checks, eating healthy local food or visiting local attractions. In addition, many cities are organizing activities for children, holding town hall meetings with mayors and local governments to focus on local health concerns and sponsoring open street events.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends five calls to action to build a healthy and safe urban environment:

• Promote urban planning for healthy behaviors and safety.
• Improve urban living conditions.
• Ensure participatory urban governance.
• Build inclusive cities that are accessible and age-friendly.
• Make urban areas resilient to emergencies and disasters.

You can join and support the global movement to make cities healthier by sharing photos, videos and event ideas at the 1000 cities – 1000 lives website.

References

1. World Health Day 2010 Urban Health Matters: Toolkit for event organizers. 2010 Feb 9

Today is World Tuberculosis Day; it’s celebrated annually on March 24th. The event is used to raise awareness about the ongoing fight against the disease. This year’s theme is on innovation and focuses on individuals around the world who have found new ways to stop TB and can serve as an inspiration to others.

Tuberculosis or TB, which is short for Tubercles Bacillus, is a common and often deadly infectious disease caused by mycobacteria in humans. TB usually attacks the lungs but it can also affect other parts of the body. More than 2 billion people are infected with TB bacilli; 1 in 10 will become sick with active TB in their lifetime [1]. Left untreated, more than 50% of those infected will die from the disease.

Over the past several years there have been important advances in TB research. Nevertheless, tuberculosis today remains an epidemic in much of the world. More resources are needed to turn scientific discoveries into new and better diagnostics, drugs and vaccines. Additionally, further study is needed to determine how to make TB services more accessible and efficient.

The aim of the 2010 World TB campaign is to recognize people who have introduced a variety of innovations in a variety of settings:

• research aimed at developing new diagnostics, drugs or vaccines
• operational research, aimed at making TB care more effective and efficient
• new approaches to helping people gain access to TB diagnosis and treatment
• novel partnerships between actors in the fight against TB
• advances in integrating TB care into health systems
• new approaches to providing support from members of the community to people affected by TB
• innovative ways of raising awareness about TB

Effective business strategies to help halt the spread of TB

Global health leaders recognize the crucial role that businesses play in the fight against tuberculosis. Top multinational business and non-profit leaders, including executives from BD, Pfizer Inc., the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria , The Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation and the Stop TB Partnership, met in New York to discuss the role of the private sector in curbing the spread of TB. The video below highlights comments from the meeting:

The participants agreed that strategic public-private partnerships are the key to success. They further recognized that building capacity to diagnose and treat TB also creates an infrastructure that can be sustained and applied to other future health crises.

Stop TB Strategy

The Stop TB Strategy was launched by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1998 [2]. It’s goal is to dramatically reduce the global burden of tuberculosis by 2015 and ensure that all TB patients benefit from universal access to high-quality diagnosis and patient-centered treatment. The Stop TB Partnership aims to push tuberculosis up the world political agenda and focuses on expanding the use of the Stop TB Strategy, forming a drug facility to provide free or low cost tuberculosis drugs, and a global charter to map the world response to the epidemic. For more on tuberculosis and the Stop TB strategy, visit the Stop TB Partnership.

References

1. 2009 Update Tuberculosis Facts. World Health Organization. Accessed 2010 Mar 24.
2. The Stop TB Strategy. World Health Organization. Accessed 2010 Mar 24.

The County Health Rankings — the first set of reports to rank the overall health of every county in all 50 states — were released recently by the University of Wisconsin’s Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The 50 state reports, available on www.countyhealthrankings.org, enables consumers, public health and community leaders, policy-makers and others to see how healthy their county is, compare it with others within their state and find ways to improve the health of their community.

The County Health Rankings

The County Health Rankings identify the healthiest and least healthy counties within every state in the nation. Health outcomes in the County Health Rankings represent how healthy a county is. Two types of health outcomes are measured: how long people live (mortality) and how healthy people feel while alive (morbidity).

Counties are ranked on four key factors that affect health: health behaviors, clinical care, social and economic, and physical environment factors. Each of these factors is based on several measures, including the percentage of adults that smoke, the percentage of adults that are obese, the percentage of a county’s population that binge drinks, access to primary care providers, rates of high school graduation, rates of violent crime, air pollution levels, liquor store density, unemployment rates and number of children living in poverty. A fifth set of factors that influence health (genetics and biology) is not included in the Rankings. Although other studies have ranked states based on health factors, this is the first study where researchers have examined multiple factors that affect health in each county in all 50 states.

Each state snapshot includes color-coded maps for health outcomes and health factors, comparing each county’s overall health with other counties. In addition, a detailed list of rankings for health outcomes and health factors is also provided. A summary report (PDF) for each state is available for download.

Researchers used the latest data available for each county, ranging from 2000 to 2008, to develop the Rankings. The data collection process gathered information from thirteen national data sources.

National comparisons and trends

When the 50 healthiest counties (one from every state) are compared with the 50 least healthy counties, several striking trends emerge:

• Healthier counties are urban/suburban, whereas least healthy counties are mostly rural. While 48% of the healthiest counties are urban or suburban counties, 84% of the least health counties are rural.
• The least healthy counties have significantly higher rates of premature death — 2.5 times higher than the healthiest counties.
• People living in the least healthy counties reporting being in significantly poorer health — the rate of people who report being in fair or poor health is 2.1 times higher than people in the healthiest counties.
• People living in the least healthy counties are much more likely to smoke; over 26%, compared to only 16% in the healthiest counties.
• People living in the least healthy counties are 60% more likely to be admitted to the hospital for preventable conditions — a sign of poor outpatient and primary care.
• The least healthy counties have higher rates of poverty, with 30% of children living in poverty — over three times higher than the rate in the healthiest counties (9%).
• The 50 least healthy counties have fewer places where people can find healthy food. Only 33% of zip codes in the least healthy counties have at least one grocery store, compared to almost half (47%) of zip codes in the healthiest counties.

Patrick Remington, M.D., M.P.H., Associate Dean for Public Health at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health said [1]:

For the first time, people have a tool to help identify what is making people in every county unhealthy. We hope this kind of check-up will mobilize community leaders to take action and invest in programs and policy changes that make their counties healthier places to live.

The Rankings demonstrate that much of what influences an individual’s health happens outside the doctor’s office. To see how the county you live in ranks, visit www.countyhealthrankings.org.

References

1. How Healthy Is Your County? New County Health Rankings Give First County-by-County Snapshot of Health in Each State. County Health Rankings press release. 2010 Feb 17.