Seminar Announcement

Dr. Michael Bonert
Faculty of Medicine
Memorial University of Newfoundland

Wikis and the Dissemination of Medical Knowledge

Department of Computer Science
Friday, February 22, 2013, 3:00 p.m., Room EN-2022

 

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Abstract

 Dr. Bonert will be discussing his experience building a wiki with particular emphasis on focuson pathology. Much of the presentation will be a review of his multiple-authored paper/Wikipedia: a key tool for global public health promotion, / J Med Internet Res. 2011 Jan 31, published under this abstract:

The Internet has become an important health information resource for patients and the generalpublic. Wikipedia, a collaboratively written Web-based encyclopedia, has become the dominantonline reference work. It is usually among the top results of search engine queries, includingwhen medical information is sought. Since April 2004, editors have formed a group calledWikiProject Medicine to coordinate and discuss the English-language Wikipedia's medicalcontent. 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 withother medical wikis. Medical professionals, their societies, patient groups, and institutions canhelp improve Wikipedia's health-related entries. Several examples of partnerships already showthat there is enthusiasm to strengthen Wikipedia's biomedical content. Given its unique globalreach, we believe its possibilities for use as a tool for worldwide health promotion areunderestimated. We invite the medical community to join in editing Wikipedia, with the goal ofproviding people with free access to reliable, understandable, and up-to-date health information.