HIDDEL -
A Metadata Vocabulary to Describe and Evaluate Health Information
on the Internet
http://www.medcertain.org/metadata/
The MedCERTAIN Consortium is proud to present the HIDDEL vocabulary V0.9
("Health Informtation Disclosure, Describtion and Evaluation Language"), a
standardized metadata vocabulary to be used by medical webmasters to create
disclosure labels for their information, and to describe and evaluate
health information on the Internet.
The metadata vocabulary is developed within the framework of the MedCERTAIN
Project, a project funded by the European Commission under the EU Action
Plan for Safer Use of the Internet.
The vocabulary is based on MedPICS ("Medical Platform for Internet Content
Selection), which is a further development of PICS. PICS has been developed
by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) as a technical standard so that
people can electronically distribute descriptions of digital works in a
computer-readable
form such as PICS/RDF/XML.
On level 1, the HIDDEL vocabulary allows health information provider to
disclose their policies using this standardized vocabulary (i.e. using XML).
In the MedCERTAIN pilot project we want to avoid that people abuse metadata
for marketing purposes. Therefore, we will check the metadata provided by
health information providers, and will indicate that the metadata have been
checked by awarding the MedCERTAIN mark. On our so-called level 2
evaluation, a nonmedical expert is checking the provided data and the
website. On a so-called level 3 evaluation, a medical expert will check the
metadata and visit the site, mainly to prevent quackery sites to carry the
MedCERTAIN mark.
The metadata vocabulary consists of more than 100 elements, which are
presented as a taxonomy. A list which consists of the 72 elements which are
being implemented in the Finish MedCERTAIN testbed can be retrieved from
<http://www.medcertain.org/metadata/>.
Widespread expression self-ratings and third-party ratings in a
standardized, computer-readable form is a pre-requisite for building
computer-based tools
which may automatically advise consumers on the trustworthiness of health
websites.
It should be stressed that the MedCERTAIN approach is a decentralized
approach, i.e. we invite everybody to use the metadata also outside of the
MedCERTAIN environment. We envisage that every medical webmaster creates an
electronic computer-readable label of their website, and that browsers will
automatically retrieve these disclosure and description statements in the
background, compare it with the users preferences, and display alerts and
advice if the health website does not comply to the preferences of the user.
Similarly, we work towards a system where everybody who is in the business
of evaluating, accrediting and describing other health information on the
web uses parts of the vocabulary to express their ratings/opinions, so that
automatic software can harvest these opinions and make it available to
the user on a push of a button.
HIDDEL will be implemented on several health gateways and portal sites in a
follow-up project of MedCERTAIN, where we will encourage health gateways,
portal sites and rating services to join the collaboration by implementing
the vocabulary.
For more information about HIDDEL also see our AMIA paper
http://www.medcertain.org/pdf/AMIA2001-final-edited-hiddel.pdf.
We appreciate your comments on the HIDDEL elements. We have prepared a
feedback form on http://www.medcertain.org for each element (click on the
comment-link). Please comment especially if you think that a question or an
element is ambiguous, needs additional clarification or definitions or if
the given information is - in your opinion - irrelevant for users.
Kind Regards,
Christian Koehler MD
University of Heidelberg, Germany
Dept. of Clinical Social Medicine
Research Unit on Cybermedicine and Ehealth
Bergheimer Str. 58, 69115 Heidelberg
Ph. ++49-6221-56 87 62 , ++49-177-826 19 70
Fax ++49-6221-56 55 84
MedCERTAIN Consortium
mailto:[log in to unmask]
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