Doing so may put your health at risk.
A study showed that many drug entries omitted important side effects and drug reactions. When compared with the Medscape Drug Reference – which is also free, but it’s peer-reviewed – the study found that it answered upwards of 80 percent of the researcher’s questions, versus only 40 percent for Wikipedia.
Most of the issues were errors of omission, as opposed to factual errors.
When it comes to medications, that can be just as significant.
Related posts:
- Poll: Should doctors use Wikipedia for medical information?
- Using Wikipedia for online health information, my USA Today column
- Big Pharma’s Wikipedia editors
- Wikipedia and medicine
- Op-ed: Wikipedia isn’t really the patient’s friend
- Wikipedia and palliative care
- Medicine and Wikipedia
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{ 1 comment }
Great info. I agree, wikipedia should be used for general knowledge and not be used for absolute information or for dealing with health issue.
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