Posted on Monday, March 2nd, 2009 by Shachar Pessis
Medpedia – Several friends of mine listed under the social category of Students informed me that their professors forbade them from using Wikipedia as a credible source of information. I don’t have anything against Wikipedia myself and, while doing a quick research on the subject, I stumbled upon an article titled Can you Trust Wikipedia?, which confirmed my positive assumptions. Nevertheless, as much as I trust Wikipedia, I would hesitate before using it as a reference of health issues. Needless to say, when I came across Medpedia – a wiki dedicated to health that made its way into our Weekly Faves, I frowned and said to myself: “can’t be!” I thoroughly examined it and can honestly say that Medpedia follows much more stringent editorial criteria than Wikipedia does. Only physicians and PhDs are authorized to edit articles on Medpedia, and only after they had created an account and had been approved as Editors. Non-editors can suggest changes that require Editors’ approval first before being published. Moreover, dozens of medical organizations (including Harvard Medical School, Stanford School of Medicine, University of California Berkeley School of Public Health, University of Michigan Medical School) released, or have pledged to release, content from copyright and add it to Medpedia. So I guess it is credible enough after all.. Don’t you agree?
