From Wikipedia to Medpedia

A couple of years ago at one of my talks about using the Web for research and education, I was showing various sites and resources, including wikis (wiki being short for "what I know is") and the grand wiki of them all, Wikipedia. Initially Wikipedia was dismissed by many because they assumed that an online encyclopedia of user-generated information would never work. Critics claimed it was too unreliable and there would be no way to verify all the content. Indeed, there were initial reports of faulty information on the site. I admit that initially I had my doubts as well. But eventually it overcame its problems and now is one of the most widely accessed and trusted web sites in the world. It has become THE site for quick lookups of information on just about every topic imaginable in a multitude of languages. According to Wikistats, the English version gets more than 7 million hits PER HOUR. And like Google, Wiikipedia didn't just stop there -- they've diversified. It has since added Wikinews, Wikiquote, Wiktionary, and numerous other wiki tools including Wikispecies, a free open directory of species. Am I the only geek who thinks this stuff is cool? It used to be that you had to surf multiple sites for quotes, thesaurus listings, and certainly to find scientific information. And Wikimedia is tackling a lot of it.

So at that presentation someone said it would be great if there was a wiki for medicine. And there is. Meet The Medpedia Project, the online platform for medical information. According to their "About" section, the Medpedia Project is brought to us "In association with Harvard Medical School, Stanford School of Medicine, Berkeley School of Public Health, University of Michigan Medical School and other leading global health organizations, Medpedia will be a commons for the gathering of the information and people critical to health care." In browsing the content, the site looks to have a lot of promise. There are still a lot of holes to be filled in (wikis take time to populate, especially those dealing with complex information that needs to be vetted), but there are some features that ACCP members might find useful for themselves, or as a place to refer patients for information: for each topic entry, there is a "Clinical" tab for health-care professionals and people seeking more technical information, and a "Plain English" tab intended for the public and patients. For example, you can compare the entry for Sepsis: Clinical against the entry for Sepsis: Plain English to get a flavor of the differences. Medpedia also has a number of other interesting resources, such as a Question/Answer area where people (presumably patients or members of the general public) can post a question that will be answered by one of the site's experts. There is also a "Groups" area designed to build community around special interest groups or topics or even members of an organization that join a la social networking. It will be interesting to see if this takes off over time.

Although it is still a work in progress, the idea of having an authoritative site like Medpedia is intriguing. It could become a source to link to background information on disease states or treatments from journal articles or other online publishing products, mobile phone applications, or other devices. Whether or not its social groups are effective remains to be seen. It isn't the first site to try to create "Facebook for Doctors" and it won't be the last. But I hope some of you will find it to be a useful resource for your own education, practice, or patient population.

About the Author

Stephen Welch

Senior Vice President, Communications
Executive Editor, CHEST

This blog, "It Ain't Rocket Surgery" is intended to help busy health-care professionals find useful online and mobile resources that will enhance their self-education and professional research efforts, or point out important topics of discussion related to online information and content. The blog's title is a Yogi Berra style mash-up of two common phrases, "it ain't brain surgery" and "it ain't rocket science". I hope it will be casual, fun, insightful, and -- most of all -- educational.

You can follow me on Twitter. 

I currently serve ACCP as the Senior Vice President of Communications, as well as the Executive Editor of CHEST, the ACCP’s flagship journal. During my 15 years here, ACCP has focused on growing and developing the editorial, technological, and business aspects of the College. We are constantly striving to make the journal and other ACCP educational content as accessible and useful to clinicians as possible.

When not at work, I like to spend time scuba diving with sharks, collecting original comic book artwork, exploring the digital world, and searching for good BBQ.

Your feedback about the blog is always appreciated. So are tips on good BBQ joints.