Group issues Web ethics principles
San Francisco -- A coalition of Internet health sites released a set of ethical principles in May, months after questions were raised about the influence of financial ties on the medical content they provide.
Hi-Ethics leaders said its 20 member organizations intend to be fully compliant with the principles by Nov. 1. The organizations include such health Web site giants as drkoop.com, Healtheon/WebMD, Medscape and OnHealth.
The goal is to gain the public's trust by clearly identifying advertising and disclosing sponsorships or other financial relationships, keeping personal information private and secure, and empowering consumers to distinguish sites that uphold these values from those that don't.
The Hi-Ethics principles (http://www.hiethics.com/Principles/index.asp) can be viewed on the Web.
Another group, the Internet Healthcare Coalition, released a draft "International e-Health Code of Ethics" in February.
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