"This recognition of MEDLINEplus is gratifying," said Dr. Donald Lindberg, NLM Director. "The URAC review is thorough and we welcome their 'seal of approval.'"
"We are pleased to welcome MEDLINEplus to the community of accredited health Web sites," said Garry Carneal, URAC President and CEO. He continued, "It is significant that a Web site that already has such a stellar reputation feels that URAC accreditation adds value for itself and consumers using the site."

MEDLINEplus is a service of the National Library of Medicine, a part of the National Institute of Health. NLM is the world's largest medical library. MEDLINEplus Web pages contain carefully selected links to Web resources with health information. On the MEDLINEplus site, consumers can find an abundance of information on more than 500 health topics, including links to trusted and authoritative information from the National Institutes of Health, other government agencies and professional organizations. The site also includes one-click searches of the enormous MEDLINE database of medical journal articles and also the ClinicalTrials.gov database. MEDLINEplus has daily health news feeds from the print media, an illustrated medical encyclopedia (from adam.com, also URAC accredited), drug information from the United States Pharmacopeia, and directories for doctors, dentists and hospitals.

URAC health Web site standards cover a number of important issues including health content editorial process, disclosure of financial relationships, linking to other Web sites, privacy and security, and mechanisms for consumer complaints. The standards also contain requirements to assure that organizations have adequate internal processes and structure to monitor and maintain Web site quality over time.

The standards were developed through a process that encouraged broad-based input from numerous stakeholder groups including consumers, regulators, health care providers, health care organizations and insurers. It is the only health web site accreditation program in existence, as well as the only program to hold sites accountable with third-party verification.

The URAC Health Web Site Standards are available to both Web site owners and the public at http://websiteaccreditation.urac.org, and include 53 specific standards and detailed descriptions of what Web sites must do to achieve accreditation. Web sites interested in achieving URAC accreditation should contact Ryan Lawton, Program Manager at (202) 216-9010 or rlawton@urac.org.