Attacking Their HONor

"There is a very high demand from the public for information about complementary and alternative medicine," said David Baker, the senior publishing adviser for Healthfinder.gov. He said the site's goal is to help people "find their way" to legitimate sources of information. Healthfinder.gov regularly reviews its links; and in the field of alternative medicine, Healthfinder.gov links to government Web sites, federally funded research centers and national professional associations of licensed health care practitioners.

Complementary and alternative medicine sites, Baker said, are treated just like other sites: If they provide referenced information, assist the public in locating licensed professionals and are operated by licensed practitioners, "there is no legitimate basis to exclude them," he said.

Barrett also has a beef with several health insurance companies, such as Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, which operates a consumer Web site called AHealthyMe.com. The site contains information about cranial therapy, which purports to manipulate cranial fluid to cure many ills, including arthritis. (Largely considered quackery, cranial therapy is not covered by Blue Cross Blue Shield or other major health insurance plans.) This site also puts a positive spin on magnet therapy, which dozens of studies have shown to have no therapeutic value. An editorial board reviews all the content posted at AHealthyMe.com. A spokesman said the insurer remains confident of its HON compliance but is reviewing certain links that Barrett has found questionable.

Another type of Web site that Barrett finds troublesome are complementary and alternative medicine information clearinghouses, such as the nonprofit Alternative Medicine Foundation Inc. Healthfinder.gov links to this site because of its exhaustive set of references. Among this site's many links are HealthWorld Online (with no HONcode), a business that sells ayurvedic, or traditional Indian, health products. Thus, with a search on Healthfinder.gov for "ayurveda" and clicks through two HONcode-compliant Web sites, you can be offered among other things unproven, astrology-based, herbal and diet-based cures for tuberculosis.

Clear-cut violators of the HONcode are sites such as Homeopathyworld.com, which displays the HON logo even though a click on the icon reveals a statement from HON that the site "does not respect" all of HON's principles. Some sites that display the HONcode were certified several years ago and may be out of compliance. Boyer said that checking up on old verification is her group's main issue and that HON is working on automatic techniques to continuously check compliance.

Barrett's efforts have prompted HON to reevaluate HealthAtoZ.com. Clicking on the HON icon at this company's consumer information site brings this message from HON: "This site has been accredited since 1997 and will be re-accredited upon completion of the annual review."

Boyer said that while the verification process continues to improve, the system is voluntary and the public must remember there are no guarantees that the information they may find on the Web is fact.•

Christopher Wanjek last wrote for the Health section about measuring human exposure to environmental chemicals.