Creating recognisable & trustworthy health information
Within any industry sector, it’s important to produce valuable, trustworthy content for your audience, and that’s not just for your own credibility.
For those of us providing healthcare services, products or disease education/awareness materials, it’s essential that whoever is reading it understands they can totally trust that the information has been well researched and is evidence-based, in order to help them to make an informed, and often crucial decision about their health condition(s).
Previously we had the NHS England’s Information Standard to offer such a reassurance. However, this is now being phased out, with any information written after July 2019 not valid to carry the standard, although information written prior to this is still valid up to a maximum of 3 years.
The PIF (Patient Information Standard) organisation has stepped up to plate, with initial sponsorship from BUPA in the piloting and creation of a new scheme; that will not only replace the Info Standard with a robust process for the creation of health information, but also aims to be widely recognised by the public as the DeFacto quality mark/standard.
What will the new standard be?
talkhealth has been selected as one of a small number of organisations to pilot the new quality mark. On Monday 18th November, we joined The PIF, along with a number of charities and organisations who were also previously involved with the Information Standard to discuss aspects of the new standard, such as:
- What values the mark should represent
- The benefits this would bring to the general public
- The benefits to HCPs of being able to safely advise information to their patients
- How to promote the message about the new scheme
The top three values from the day were agreed that new content standards must be:
- Trustworthy and up to date
- Simple and easy to understand
- Evidence-based
The benefits for those that read health information particularly found across the internet will be huge, as the information they will receive will be fully audited, endorsed and will empower them, as they can fully trust that the content they are reading is produced to this new standard; and not worry about the ever-increasing concern around fake news.
How we help you improve content
If you are interested in learning more about the new standard that will be in effect from March 2020 and hear more about how talkhealth can support you in the creation of certified health information please do contact us.
We have a wide range of content writers (both internal and external health care professionals) covering all major chronic health conditions. We offer to take the hassle out of content writing for your organisation, by providing 100% quality, factual articles to feature across your website and help you focus on what’s important to your organisation.
Each article will be fact-checked and evidence-based, SEO-optimised and ready to upload to share with your audience and increase engagement.
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