Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS

Smart Online Searching To Increase Patient Safety

Project description

E-health literacy to help spot health misinformation online

The ability to seek, find, understand and appraise health information from electronic sources and apply the knowledge gained to address or solve a health problem. This is how the World Health Organization defines e-health literacy. Building people’s skills to find reliable health information and to ignore the fake news is crucial. The EU-funded SOS TIPS project will develop smart searching guidelines to increase digital health literacy. The guidelines will include ways to conduct well-rounded searches, judge the reliability of online content and spot the warning signs of questionable trustworthiness. These guidelines, primarily implemented in a browser extension, will assist in gaining a deeper insight into information consumption within epistemic communities.

Objective

The spread of misinformation has been attributed to an increasingly digitalized and fractionalized information landscape. In such a milieu, relevance-based online environments can create “alternative epistemologies”, spawning distinct ways of consuming information that can be shared by millions in so-called “epistemic communities”. Information consumption and digital health literacy (ability to seek, understand, and appraise online health information) have a prominent effect on health outcomes and doctor-patient communication. Our initiative aims to increase digital health literacy via the development of guidelines for “Smart Searching”: how to conduct well-rounded searches, judge the reliability of online content, warning signs of questionable trustworthiness, and practical techniques aiding informed decision-making. These guidelines, primarily implemented in a browser extension scaffolding critical thinking, will be based on an empirical study examining how particular epistemic communities (anti-vax; users of alternative medicine) interact with online content and determine trustworthiness. The study will be conducted with a methodological innovation that enables the integration of eye-movement, human-computer interaction, and qualitative data in order to triangulate data types and thus better understand cognitive processes in online behavior. Our open source tool will comprise part of a larger kit: a unified qualitative-quantitative framework for integrating all three data types, a standard with which the tool can be implemented, and an open data depositing system. The initiative’s pivotal objective is to increase digital health literacy among the general public and to create a reproducible and sustainable system for future research aimed at understanding online information-seeking behavior. Gaining a deeper insight into information consumption within epistemic communities is essential in ensuring health equity and patient safety in a digitalized world.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Keywords

Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)

See all projects funded under this funding scheme

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2020

See all projects funded under this call

Coordinator

UNIVERSITEIT MAASTRICHT
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 253 052,16
Address
MINDERBROEDERSBERG 4
6200 MD Maastricht
Netherlands

See on map

Region
Zuid-Nederland Limburg (NL) Zuid-Limburg
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 253 052,16

Partners (1)

My booklet 0 0