Visitors from 40,000 websites put trust in healthdirect

The top five websites referring visitors to healthdirect are government (‘gov.au’) sites.

Information on the healthdirect site is drawn from non-commercial sources that meet Australian standards, including clinical practice guidelines, government department information, peer-reviewed literature, Australian data and statistics and material from expert organisations – including Healthdirect Australia’s Information Partners.

Information Partner content

The depth and breadth of Information Partner content complements healthdirect website local content. While healthdirect provides an overview of numerous health topics, Partner content offers access to more specialised resources developed by subject matter experts, including videos, specialist helplines, chat support, apps, online programs, support groups and more.

Partner resources such as these, including material in a range of languages, also support the health literacy of website visitors who may need alternative ways to absorb information.

healthdirect enables health literacy

A digital self-help tool, the healthdirect Symptom Checker, suggests appropriate care and the next steps to take for a user, based on their symptoms and answers to some simple questions.

Healthdirect Australia developed the Symptom Checker in collaboration with the UK National Health Service and an Australian expert clinical panel. This process ensured the tool is clinically trustworthy, offers appropriate health advice and is relevant to the Australian health system.

The questions, answer options and health advice provided are written and designed to be understood by most people regardless of their education level, age, socio-economic or cultural background. It is written in plain English with clear next steps, in accordance with best-practice health literacy principles.

Safe, clinically-reviewed content

The healthdirect website includes nearly 2000 pages on health topics. Content is written by accredited, experienced medical writers who are assigned topics based on their specific expertise.

Healthdirect Australia’s Clinical Governance team reviews articles to ensure they align with current medical recommendations and guidelines. Every two years, most health information pages receive both an editorial and a clinical review to ensure they are accurate, up to date and easy to understand. The work of Healthdirect Australia’s approved content providers is also audited quarterly.

National Health Services Directory

The healthdirect Service Finder draws data from the National Health Services Directory, a national directory of health services and practitioners. Directory data, which are maintained by Healthdirect Australia, align with other national databases, ensuring consistency of data sets across the health sector.

Australia’s most comprehensive medicines information service

The healthdirect medicines pages, which form Australia’s most comprehensive medicines catalogue, contain information on more than 10,000 separate medicines, with further information added for context where possible.

Visitors to the medicines page can search by brand name or ingredient name and see information about how to take the medicine, details of side-effects, appearance and storage, as well as news of medicines recalls and other important topics. Images of pills, where available, help with identification while sound files can help with the pronunciation of medicines.

Information is drawn from the government Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, which provides details of medicines subsidised by the Australian Government as well as information for consumers and health professionals, and from the National Clinical Terminology Service and the Australian Health Thesaurus, a catalogue of health-related medical and human services terms.

Please contact your Partner Manager, Christina Brimage or Jennifer Brittain to optimise linking your website to healthdirect.