Dear Colleagues
I am the Research Officer responsible for the DISCERN Project. I
am writing to announce the launch of DISCERN Online and to ask
for your help with some research we are conducting through our
new website.
DISCERN is a general set of quality criteria designed to enable
consumers and other health information users judge the quality of
written information on treatment choices. DISCERN also provides
quality guidelines for authors. The DISCERN instrument has
undergone a rigorous process of development and testing (see our
article in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 1999,
53, 105-111) and a handbook has been developed which acts as a
user guide and training resource. DISCERN is currently being used
in a wide variety of settings for screening and producing consumer
health information and for training consumers and professionals in
appraisal and shared decision-making skills.
We have recently launched the DISCERN website -
http://www.discern.org.uk. The site provides free online access to
the DISCERN instrument and handbook. We are also using the
site to assess DISCERN's applicability to online health information
and to gather users' views on the quality of information on the
internet. Visitors to the site are encouraged to provide feedback via
the evaluation form and to participate in the online discussion
group.
We hope you will find DISCERN Online useful and would be
grateful for your views. Please visit our site and let us know what
you think about DISCERN or any other issues relating to the
quality of consumer health information on the internet.
My apologies for cross-postings.
Regards
Deborah Charnock
__________________________________________________________
Dr.Deborah Charnock Tel:+44 1865 226712
Division of Public Health Fax:+44 1865 226720
& Primary Health Care
University of Oxford
Institute of Health Sciences
Old Road
Headington
Oxford OX3 7LF
E-Mail: [log in to unmask]
URL: http://www.discern.org.uk
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