Heilman James M, Kemmann Eckhard, Bonert Michael, Chatterjee Anwesh, Ragar Brent, Beards Graham M, Iberri David J, Harvey Matthew, Thomas Brendan, Stomp Wouter, Martone Michael F, Lodge Daniel J, Vondracek Andrea, de Wolff Jacob F, Liber Casimir, Grover Samir C, Vickers Tim J, Meskó Bertalan, Laurent Michaël R
University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada.
J Med Internet Res. 2011 Jan 31;13(1):e14. doi: 10.2196/jmir.1589.
The Internet has become an important health information resource for patients and the general public. Wikipedia, a collaboratively written Web-based encyclopedia, has become the dominant online reference work. It is usually among the top results of search engine queries, including when medical information is sought. Since April 2004, editors have formed a group called WikiProject Medicine to coordinate and discuss the English-language Wikipedia's medical content. This paper, written by members of the WikiProject Medicine, discusses the intricacies, strengths, and weaknesses of Wikipedia as a source of health information and compares it with other medical wikis. Medical professionals, their societies, patient groups, and institutions can help improve Wikipedia's health-related entries. Several examples of partnerships already show that there is enthusiasm to strengthen Wikipedia's biomedical content. Given its unique global reach, we believe its possibilities for use as a tool for worldwide health promotion are underestimated. We invite the medical community to join in editing Wikipedia, with the goal of providing people with free access to reliable, understandable, and up-to-date health information.
互联网已成为患者和普通公众重要的健康信息资源。维基百科，一部基于网络协作编写的百科全书，已成为占主导地位的在线参考工具书。它通常位于搜索引擎查询结果的前列，包括在搜索医学信息时。自2004年4月以来，编辑们组建了一个名为“维基医学计划”的小组，以协调和讨论英文维基百科的医学内容。本文由维基医学计划的成员撰写，探讨了维基百科作为健康信息来源的复杂性、优势和劣势，并将其与其他医学维基进行了比较。医学专业人员、他们的协会、患者团体和机构可以帮助改善维基百科与健康相关的条目。已经有一些合作的例子表明，人们热衷于加强维基百科的生物医学内容。鉴于其独特的全球影响力，我们认为其作为全球健康促进工具的使用潜力被低估了。我们邀请医学界参与编辑维基百科，目标是为人们提供免费获取可靠、易懂和最新健康信息的途径。
