Assessment of a French Code of Ethics for Health Teaching Resources on the Internet

Background: Constant assessment of the quality of health information on the Internet is an absolute necessity as peer rev iew is o f ten lack ing in th is media . Objective: To develop a simple and easy French Code of Ethics which will enable medical students to judge quality of health information in teaching material available on the Internet. Design: Three medical scientists selected nine criteria from previously established codes of ethics from Europe and the USA. This instrument was tested on a sample of 24 health French-speaking Internet teaching resources. Results: For the panel of experts, we analyzed assessments with non parametric tests. Expert assessment was analyzed with non-parametric tests. This analysis demonstrated a strong agreement among the raters. Conclusion: It seems possible to produce an analysis summary to evaluate teaching material available on the Internet.