Wikipedia is an incredible resource. The problem is, many people treat it as gospel.
The open-access nature has “raised concern” among doctors about its reliability, as it is the sixth most popular site on the internet, the US authors of the research, published in the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association with the guide of joint pain treatment croydon, said.
Up to 70% of physicians and medical students use the tool, they say.
If Wikipedia was regularly vetted for mistakes, or had editing limited to trusted experts in specific fields, this might not be a problem.
They printed off the articles on 25 April 2012 to analyse, and discovered that 90% of the entries made statements that contradicted latest medical research.
To be fair, this doesn’t mean that 90% of the information is wrong. It means that there are a lot of errors mixed in with the good info. And let’s not forget that even the professionals get it wrong sometimes.
Point is, recognize that before you have a full-blown panic attack over something you read in Wikipedia, you might want to check with your doctor first.
In my experience, using the internet AT ALL to diagnose your symptoms is a choose-your-own-adventure where you always end up dead. Not good.
I agree with Dmitri but the notion of checking with your doctor first is also laughable. I have seen so many board certified Internal Med doctors who got their degrees in the 70’s and haven’t even heard of research common to my illness from 10 years ago, much less research that is current to today. The medical industry moves far too slow and separate from itself to think Wikipedia or your doctor really have a good grasp on all of the available information.
It’s information just like any other information. Common sense is needed and lots of cross referencing as well. No one source for ANY information should be trusted outright. Checking with your doctor to me is just one more avenue of information, not the end all be all.
I utterly agree. No one cares more about your health than YOU, so YOU have to take responsibility.
“In my experience”, “you always end up dead.”
Uhm… are you a zombie? 😉
They printed off the articles on 25 April 2012 to analyse, and
discovered that 90% of the entries made statements that contradicted
latest medical research.
Also remember that doctors themselves usually aren’t up on the latest research on anything, let alone every disease.
Research is continually ongoing, and doctors have lives and busy schedules; keeping up with the latest research on everything is literally impossible for them.
So contradicting the latest research may well mean they were written by a physician who was current five years ago, for instance.
(That said, there’s also any amount of sheer woo or falsehood, too. But the criterion in the statement was not “completely wrong” or “pseudoscience”…)
The thing is, it is a doctor’s job to take responsibility for their patient’s health. It’s an expert problem that requires expert solutions. It’s not a DIY thing. You shouldn’t even try to be your own plumber, let alone your own doctor.
Better advice is to spend a lot of time and do a lot of research to find yourself a very good doctor, not try to be your own doctor. Even doctors fail when they try to be their own doctor.
The point is, checking with a doctor is better than checking Wikipedia.
That is why doctors should all have iPads on them every second that they are working. They should be plugging symptoms into the iPad as they go and getting data back to help them in their diagnosis.
A lot of doctors think this will make the patient nervous because it implies the doctor does not know everything. But for me, it is the opposite. Someone who is working without access to a data is the one who is making me nervous.
I know, it’s in the last paragraph. I’m just expanding on the point. Too many people believe what their doctor says outright. No one is infallible. Wikipedia can be a useful resource.