Over the past several years as many as 40 Web sites have been developed to help people with all types of illnesses more easily locate, and be matched with, clinical trials ¹.

The purpose of this guide is to suggest questions that you may want to consider when visiting a clinical trials Web site. As is true with all information on the Web, it is important to use reputable sites and to understand the possible biases, limitations and influences on the information and services they provide.

This guide doesn't intend to define what a perfect clinical trials site is. Rather, the intention is to help you be a wiser user of clinical trials sites.

There are five separate areas that are important to consider when evaluating the reliability of any Web site. This guide offers questions specific to each:

• What is the mission of the site and how does it present information?
• What is the source of funding for the site?
• How is the site's content managed and edited?
• What is the privacy policy of the site?
• What are the feedback mechanisms for the site?

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