The Recommendation - Provenance

The author of original material should be identified. Professionally qualified authors should display at least their primary registered professional qualification i.e. MBChB, RGN, FRCS. For information prepared primarily for a lay audience, the qualification should be given in full, or a hypertext link to an explanation of the abbreviation (e.g. Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons)

Intended Audience

The intended audience should be identified. It is particularly important to distinguish between information directed primarily at a lay audience, and that directed to the medical professions. It is as important for the author to be clear whom he is addressing, as it is for the reader to know at what level of complexity the material is presented.

References and Citations

Quoted references and citations should be annotated in the usual way, either hypertext link e.g. (Ref.1) or should be quoted in full "in-line". The hypertext link will usually be to a separate HTML document containing the references for ease of printing. References to unpublished material which has not been subject to peer review should be clearly identified.

Disclaimers and Cautions

Information presented primarily to a lay audience should generally contain an appropriate disclaimer or caution.

Currency

Information which is accurate at the time of writing, may later become inaccurate over time. Pages containing medical information should indicate the last date of amendment or update.

Contact Address

A contact address, by which the reader can feedback to the author, should be displayed. Ideally this will include the facility for on-line feedback.
Conflict of Interest and Funding
All medical content should carry information about any conflict of interest which the author might be said to hold, or an explicit statement that there is no conflict of interest. Similarly there should be a statement about the source of any funding received, or the statement that there was no funding.

Copyright and Intellectual Property

The normal principles of copyright law and intellectual property applicable should be upheld.

Example

Information Needs of Primary Care Teams
(A discussion paper for medical professionals)
by Dr Simon Smith MRCP

Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) has been widely hailed as the cornerstone of medical education by a wide range of academic bodies. In their recent joint publication, Managing Information in Practice, the Royal College of Surgeons, and Royal College of General Practitioners call for further efforts to be made to make the information required to practice EBM available within the consultation. As the rate of change in medical knowledge accelerates: the doubling time of biomedical knowledge is currently about 19 years (Ref.1) , it becomes increasingly difficult to stay abreast of developments. Most of the information doctors use when consulting is kept in their heads, in what has been called "a constantly expanding and reinterpreted database." (Ref.2)

References

Wyatt J. Uses and scources of medical knowledge. Lancet 1991;338:1368-72.
Tannenbaum SJ. Knowing and acting in medical practice:the epistemiological politics of outcomes research. J Health Polit 1994;10:27-44

The proposed Bill of Rights states that:

Medical Webmasters shall build no site that does not include:

1. Who they are

2. Their credentials

3. Honest and non-misleading information

4. Accurate and up to date information

5. Their authority and references

6. Who is behind the site

7. Whether I have to pay for anything

8. My rights and guarantees if I buy anything

9. Domain of relevance and availability in my country

10. How to get in touch