The Health Navigator website

The Health Navigator website provides one place for New Zealanders to find reliable and trustworthy health information and self-care resources. It focuses on promoting clear, consistent messages that enable users to get the information they need at the time they need it. Take a look at what's on our site.

Why should I trust this website?

The website is developed and maintained by New Zealand clinicians, consumers and our ever increasing pool of subject matter experts. These experts help us review and update topics as we continually seek to keep the information up to date, relevant and aligned with best practice for Aotearoa New Zealand. 

What is the purpose of the Health Navigator website?

The key objectives of the Health Navigator NZ website are to help you navigate the health information maze and:

• simplify the process of finding trusted and reliable health information
• equip you and your family/whānau with information, tools and resources that help you make better decisions and choices to maximise your health and quality of life
• improve the quality of health information used by New Zealanders by developing a quality framework and minimum standards for all linked resources
• improve accessibility of reliable self-care/self-help information to support shared decision making, patient autonomy, self-determination and encourage patient activation and sharing of responsibility in ongoing healthcare
• improve patient safety by promoting clinical excellence and upskilling of consumers to stay alert to anything that doesn’t seem right
• encourage and facilitate increased understanding and use of self-management tools, resources and principles within both primary and secondary care
• support the practical implementation of evidence-based clinical guidelines by making them more available at the point of care
• support individuals and families/whānau with positive behaviour change through access to evidence-based online tools, resources, self-help programmes and support groups
• improve accessibility and availability of health information for specific groups such as Māori & Pasifika people and resources in different languages
• become a trusted source of health information and practical tools for health professionals and consumers within New Zealand (independent of any drug company sponsorship, involvement or resources).

How can Health Navigator help improve my health?

What is 'evidence-based' content?

One of the key advantages of the website is that it makes it easy for everyday people to find reliable health information quickly. We do this by providing original material that is considered best practice, and this is peer-reviewed – checked by experts in medical fields. We also link to existing resources we trust.

Before resources are added to the website they must meet our quality framework.

Original Health Navigator NZ material is produced and updated by a team of medical writers and subject experts. The team is supported by a range of topic reference groups and clinical advisors who assist with identifying the best resources for a New Zealand audience. All content on the website has passed through a quality assessment process developed by the Health Navigator Charitable Trust Board and the Website Advisory and Editorial Team.

Final approval of content is the responsibility of the editorial team overseen by our clinical director and editor in chief, Dr Janine Bycroft.

The Health Navigator website has a Health on the Net (HON) certificate, which provides an independent guarantee that this health website, at the date of its certification, complies with and pledges to honour the eight principles of the HON Code of Conduct as drawn up by the HON Foundation.

In line with our vision to provide reliable, independent health information, no pharmaceutical advertising is accepted for use on the Health Navigator NZ website.

How is Health Navigator funded?

We are particularly grateful for initial seed funding from the following district health boards to help us get started between 2008 to 2011:

• Waitematā DHB
• Counties Manukau DHB
• Auckland DHB.

Current Funding 2012–2019

Once the value of the website was demonstrated, a national contract with a number of district health boards was established. This contract provides partial funding for the maintenance of the website, the Long-Term Conditions Bulletin/Network and some workforce training.

Current DHB supporters include: 

District Health Boards 

Website rebuild

In 2013, MIMS NZ gifted some content from its two well-known websites www.everybody.co.nz and www.liveto100.co.nz to Health Navigator as these websites were discontinued and the content needed updating. Merging the three websites together (everybody, liveto100 and Health Navigator NZ) was a large project and undertaking to plan, redesign, update all the content and build. 

• We are very grateful for a Lotteries Commission grant for April 2014 to April 2015 that contributed partial funding for this project. 
• We also wish to acknowledge and thank the many groups and individuals who have provided clinical advice, review and input, often on a pro bono basis. This ranges from clinical networks around the country through to Māori and Pasifika focus group participants who have helped keep the website real and grounded.
• The rest of the costs have been funded by the Health Navigator Charitable Trust. 

Acknowledgements and thanks

This initiative was only possible through the generous donation of time and effort by many, many people. Sustaining such a community initiative is an ongoing challenge, as one of our key aims is to remain completely independent of any drug company funding or influence. We need your help to keep this website up to date and relevant. 

Business partners

	Health TV Health TV provides quality health messages and localised content specifically designed for medical waiting rooms, improving the patient waiting room experience and reinforces key health messages practices may want to deliver. Health TV can also help practice teams promote health literacy, reduce administration time, promote services, avoid unwanted advertising, and much more. For more information, visit Health TV
	QuestionPro We used to conduct paper surveys to collect data in rural areas with limited internet connectivity. Thanks to QuestionPro's offline mobile app, collecting offline data is a piece of cake now, especially when you don't have to deal with paperwork anymore.
	Zapier Thanks to the team at Zapier for providing a free Starter plan to non-profits such as Health Navigator. This can be used to automate certain tasks. Visit Zapier to see how you or your organisation could use this tool too.