Our Product

Consumer Health Interactive's Content
Consumer Health Interactive's Accreditation
Consumer Health Interactive Editorial Guidelines
Consumer Health Interactive Conflict of Interest Policies
Consumer Health Interactive's Editorial Process

Consumer Health Interactive's Content

To find their best options in the burgeoning world of consumer-directed health care, people need health information they can trust.

CHI's award-winning content is the gold standard in accuracy and reliability. It undergoes a rigorous editorial process that includes many levels of reporting, editing, fact-checking, medical review and updating. At the same time, we know that dry, textbook-style writing isn't going to engage readers and deliver the information they need. Our staff of experienced writers excels in creating appealing, easy-to-grasp articles and interactive tools. And content is intuitively organized by health topics -- such as self-care centers for asthma, diabetes and other conditions -- so that readers can easily find what they are looking for.

CHI content includes:

Magazine-style articles that are both authoritative and consumer-friendly
Special reports that dig deeper into popular, up-to-the-minute health topics
First-person essays by recognized authors and others who have experienced personal challenges
In-depth reviews of health-related books
Fun, interactive quizzes that test readers' knowledge on health subjects
Interactive calculators that deliver personal health information based on self-reported data
Health risk assessments that give readers more in-depth information than calculators
Animated guides that illustrate the way diseases like cancer work and how different parts of the body function
Health diaries that let users track their own progress in managing their health or chronic condition
Podcasts with health experts
Video stories that provide a more personal, entertaining avenue for delivering health information
Multiple eNewsletters available weekly and monthly on an ever expanding list of topics

Consumer Health Interactive's Accreditationn

Consumer Health Interactive In August, 2002, CHI sites became some of the first health Web sites to earn accreditation from URAC, the organization that defines the highest standards of quality and accountability for health information and services on the Web. CHI content continues to meet URAC's more than 50 stringent standards year after year.

CHI meets The Health on the Net Foundation's Code of Conduct (HONcode) for health care information providers. The Code of Conduct developed by the foundation sets international standards for the quality, confidentiality, and reliability of health and medical Web sites.

Consumer Health Interactive Editorial Guidelines

Our content management guidelines are designed to maintain the highest standards of editorial credibility and integrity and to offer clients engaging, trustworthy and accurate content. To ensure this, our editorial and advertising policies follow the editorial guidelines adopted by Medscape, Health on the Net, URAC, and other e-health online ethics and accreditation organizations, which take into account medical ethics, journalism ethics, business ethics and the ethics of medical editing. These guidelines, which appear below, call for a clear and consistent separation of editorial and promotional content:

Advertising should comply with the laws of the United States. Any other CHI sites established in other countries should also comply with the laws of the country where the site is built and maintained.
Under no circumstances shall CHI's acceptance of an advertisement be considered an endorsement of the product advertised or the company that manufactured it.
CHI retains the right to reject advertising and will not accept advertising for any products or services that makes unsubstantiated claims or are known to be harmful to health, such as tobacco products, and will not knowingly accept advertisements or grants from companies that manufacture such products.
CHI maintains editorial independence and makes a clear distinction between advertising and the editorial process and decision-making. Current or potential sponsors may not influence the editorial content, tone or approach of material that appears on the CHI site.
CHI readers should be able to easily distinguish between promotional and editorial material. To ensure this distinction, all content developed by a sponsor or advertiser and other "advertorial" content will be clearly labeled as such.
Any continuing education programs posted on CHI will be developed in accordance with the guidelines of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education.
CHI will not sell advertising for a product on the condition that it appears in the same location and at the same time as a specific article mentioning that product.
Advertisers will not influence the way search results by keyword or topic are displayed on the site.
Within the bounds of appropriate editorial context, CHI will consider for publication criticisms of content and/or advertisements or CHI stories and/or advertisement policies.

Consumer Health Interactive Conflict of Interest Policies

Our editorial staff thoroughly researches and fact-checks all the content generated by CHI, including primers, special reports, quizzes, health diaries, interactive tools and calculators. Everything we create is also reviewed for accuracy and safety by our medical advisory board.

Anyone who serves on the CHI staff is expected to report accurately and without bias on any news story. All writers and editors (including freelancers) must avoid financial or other interests in any drug, biotech, medical device, or health care company, or any other company perceived to have influence in the health care industry. If staff members have any such interests, they must be disclosed to their immediate supervisor at the time they are hired, or at the time that the financial or other interest develops. The supervisor will determine whether the interest presents a conflict to accurate reporting and, if so, what must be done to eliminate it.

Consumer Health Interactive is a subsidiary of CVS Caremark, a leading online and retail pharmacy and pharmacy benefit management company. As stated in CHI's editorial guidelines (see the "About Us" section of the site), CHI maintains editorial independence and requires a separation between editorial and commercial interests at all levels.

For a listing of our writing and editorial staff, please click here.

Consumer Health Interactive's Editorial Process

Stories are assigned to experienced health and medical writers, many of whom come from Time Inc. Health, Hippocrates, the Washington Post, and other nationally recognized publications. Some are physicians or medical researchers themselves.
A reporter researches the story, doing interviews with researchers in the field (generally nationally recognized or affiliated with a leading medical school or research project) and combing through medical studies, government reports and other data. After writing the story, the reporter sends CHI a fact-checking packet that includes names and phone numbers for the story's sources and primary source materials (peer-reviewed journals, interview notes, government or academic reports, excerpts from textbooks, and so on).
An editor at Consumer Health Interactive reviews the story and does a line and structural edit. The story then goes to the executive editor or another senior editor for top edit.
After top edit, the story goes to the research editor and fact-checkers, who take the writer's fact-checking materials and check the story against them, line by line. He or she also calls the sources and checks their titles, affiliations and points of view expressed in the article. At the same time, the story is sent to a copy editor, who corrects its grammar, punctuation, spelling and syntax; he or she also checks for consistency in tone and approach.
An editor incorporates the fact-checking and copyediting changes into the piece.
An editor sends the story, now fact-checked and copyedited, to a medical reviewer on CHI's medical review board (Editorial Board). Reviewers are typically board-certified physicians, pharmacists or other health providers in clinical practice; many are nationally recognized experts and researchers in their field from universities such as Harvard and Yale. An oncologist specializing in breast cancer would review articles on breast cancer, and so on. Their comments are incorporated into the story and sent back for a final sign-off.
The piece is sent back to the writer for approval. If the writer suggests any changes, they have to be run past the medical reviewer again.
The piece is then posted on CHI's Consumer Direct sites along with appropriate artwork and graphics.

Content Updating

We offer readers a daily health news service. Health news on the site is refreshed daily on pages with heavy traffic:

The home page
Channel pages such as Women's Health
Dozens of topic pages on everything from heart disease to mental health

In addition, CHI content is continually updated through both standard and immediate updates.

Standard updates

Editors review all the original content on CHI sites at least annually and update the stories as necessary.

Immediate updates

Major drug and supplement recalls and alerts
Changes in federal guidelines for disease management
Major medical studies with the potential to affect treatment guidelines

Quality Improvement

CHI defines credibility as providing content that is authoritative, trustworthy, timely and accurate. We continually strive to improve the quality of our site content through:

Professional editing, research, fact-checking, medical review and updating
Continually creating new stories, special reports, audio material and interactive tools with the goal of helping consumers improve their health
Monitoring daily, weekly, and monthly traffic patterns on the site to track reader trends and interests
Conducting periodic usability and focus group studies
Participating in ongoing dialogue with clients
Regularly upgrading our home page graphics with topical news photos
Attending public health conferences and seminars
Monitoring more than 25 print and online health publications to keep abreast of the latest in health and medical news