Reliable or not, doctors use Wikipedia
The month of May saw significant coverage concerning the reliability of Wikipedia's medical articles. A study entitled Wikipedia vs peer-reviewed medical literature for information about the 10 most costly medical conditions (available here on the National Institute for Health's website) concluded that nine out of the ten Wikipedia articles on the costliest medical conditions have factual errors. Wikipedia's medical editors vehemently disagree. MastCell wrote: "I don't doubt that we need to improve the accuracy of our medical articles, but I agree with James that this particular study is utterly meaningless and isn't worth the electrons it's printed on."
Other editors questioned the neutrality of the The Journal of the American Osteopathy Association, with one editor asserting they have a vested interest in "trashing" Wikipedia. The Guardian noted the study, and seemed to support its findings:
| “ | Lots of studies have looked at Wikipedia's accuracy. It seems more reliable for kidney disease and mental health problems, less so for drug information (especially on how medicines interact with each other), digestive and liver diseases, and gastroenterology. One study found information on children's ear, nose and throat problems had twice as many errors on Wikipedia as on eMedicine, a free online resource for medical professionals. This latest study found that, for each Wikipedia article, between 55% and 100% of the factual statements found were substantiated by the peer-reviewed literature. There is, however, often disagreement on what is "medical fact" within that literature and the study didn't take this into account. | ” |
Regardless of its reliability, Men's Health reported that a majority of doctors use Wikipedia at least occasionally, and suggested the websites of the Center for Disease Control and the United States Department of Health and Human Services as alternative sources.