Dear Colleagues
I am a member of the team responsible for the development of DISCERN.
I am new to the list and thought I would take the opportunity to
tell you more about DISCERN and our current research projects.
DISCERN is a general set of quality criteria for the content of
written consumer health information on treatment choices. The
DISCERN Project was funded by the British Library Research and
Devlopment Department from 1996-7 and run jointly by the
University of Oxford Division of Public Health (Sasha Shepperd),
Buckinghamshire Health Authority
(Gill Needham) and the Help for Health Trust (Bob Gann).
The aim of the project was to develop an instrument to
enable health information consumers and providers to judge the
quality of written consumer health information on treatment choices.
The instrument was also designed as a set of guidelines for authors
and producers of such information.
DISCERN consists of 15 key questions (each representing a separate
quality criterion) plus an overall quality rating. The instrument has
undergone a rigorous process of development and testing
and has been shown to be reliable and valid. A paper on the
development of DISCERN will be published in the Journal of
Epidemiology and Community Health later this year. We have also
developed a DISCERN handbook which acts as a detailed user guide and
training resource. The handbook provides background, general
instructions and in-depth guidance for rating each of the separate
DISCERN quality criteria including examples based on consumer health
literature. The instrument and handbook are currently being used in a
variety of settings for screening and producing CHI, and for training
consumers and health professionals in shared decision-making skills.
We are now developing a version of DISCERN for the internet. If you
have any advice or comments, please let me know. We are convening a
Working Group for the Project and I am particularly anxious to find a consumer
representative, so any guidance or contacts would be appreciated.
Please contact me if you would like to know how to obtain a copy of
the handbook or for more information about DISCERN
I look forward to further involvement with the group.
Deborah Charnock
__________________________________________________________
Deborah Charnock Tel:+44 1865 227091
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]
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