Web Sites Selection Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

To be included in our search engine, a medical Web site would have to be one of the following:

• Government site
• Military site
• Educational institution site (e.g. university, college, continuing education)
• Professional regulatory site
• Professional association site
• HON-accredited site
• Hospital or medical clinic site
• Medical reference publisher site
• Medical journal site
• Drug information site
• Poison control site
• Site authored by an MD or pharmacist with referenced contents (e.g. Globalrph.com)
• Pharmaceutical manufacturer (e.g. Merck.com)
• Support group society site
• Expert site (e.g. Naturaldatabase.com, WebMD)
• Critic site (e.g. Quackwatch.org)

We utilized FDA's guideline on "How to Evaluate Health Information on the Internet" to decide whether a questionable site is to be included in our search engine.

Exclusion Criteria:

We exclude sites that...

• Have unknown or unlisted author/editor
• Anyone can freely write or edit articles
• Contain bogus miracle cure claims
• Have too many ads that obscure the actual contents

We strive to make this search engine as robust and reliable as possible. Hence, we welcome any feedback or criticism on any aspect of our search engine including this selection criteria.