Article type
Year
Abstract
Background: Wikipedia is one of the most popular sources of health information for the public and appears among the top search engine results for dermatologic diseases. Because of its influence on health information, it is important to ensure that Wikipedia’s content is evidence-based, unbiased, and up-to-date. The Cochrane-Wikipedia Partnership was founded in 2014 with the goal of ensuring that evidence-based health-related content is shared on Wikipedia. Cochrane Review Groups, Centres, and Fields engage with Wikipedia to recruit and train editors and share high-quality Cochrane Review evidence in Wikipedia articles.
Objectives: This project seeks to evaluate the impact of editing skin-related Wikipedia articles to include evidence-based information from Cochrane Skin reviews.
Methods: From May to August 2018, 5 medical students from U.S. medical schools were recruited to become Wikipedia editors. They were provided with dermatologist and Cochrane mentors and trained in editing technique. Over a 6-month period, the trainees improved 40 skin-specific English language articles on Wikipedia. Articles were improved by adding paraphrased conclusions, background information, and references from 60 Cochrane reviews.
Results: The dermatology-related Wikipedia articles that have been edited by the medical student team have amassed 28 million new views by March 2020. The top 5 viewed articles were on the topics of psoriasis, leprosy, cellulitis, melanoma, and alopecia areata. These five articles accounted for 38% of the total article view count.
Conclusions: The Cochrane Skin Wikipedia initiative aims to incorporate evidence-based information into Wikipedia health articles. Wikipedia’s vast influence and accessibility makes it an effective dermatology education tool. We have shown that a small Wikipedia editing initiative has the potential to share evidence-based information with many people (i.e. 28 million Wikipedia article views in 19 months). The Cochrane Wikipedia initiative also provides an opportunity for medical professionals to actively contribute to evidence-based, informative articles. The Wikipedia editing team edit relevant pages when new Cochrane Skin reviews are published. Future directions of the initiative include recruiting more trainees, improving skin-related Wikipedia content in other languages, and making further improvements to increase article quality ratings. For more information about how to participate, please visit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Medicine/Cochrane/How. This work has been published in the Journal of the American Academy for Dermatology.
Patient or healthcare consumer involvement: Cochrane Skin reviews all have consumer input through authorship or peer review to make sure they are relevant to patients. The result of the project is Wikipedia articles which are more accurate, up-to-date and evidence-based, so that healthcare consumers and potential patients viewing them have the best health information possible.
Objectives: This project seeks to evaluate the impact of editing skin-related Wikipedia articles to include evidence-based information from Cochrane Skin reviews.
Methods: From May to August 2018, 5 medical students from U.S. medical schools were recruited to become Wikipedia editors. They were provided with dermatologist and Cochrane mentors and trained in editing technique. Over a 6-month period, the trainees improved 40 skin-specific English language articles on Wikipedia. Articles were improved by adding paraphrased conclusions, background information, and references from 60 Cochrane reviews.
Results: The dermatology-related Wikipedia articles that have been edited by the medical student team have amassed 28 million new views by March 2020. The top 5 viewed articles were on the topics of psoriasis, leprosy, cellulitis, melanoma, and alopecia areata. These five articles accounted for 38% of the total article view count.
Conclusions: The Cochrane Skin Wikipedia initiative aims to incorporate evidence-based information into Wikipedia health articles. Wikipedia’s vast influence and accessibility makes it an effective dermatology education tool. We have shown that a small Wikipedia editing initiative has the potential to share evidence-based information with many people (i.e. 28 million Wikipedia article views in 19 months). The Cochrane Wikipedia initiative also provides an opportunity for medical professionals to actively contribute to evidence-based, informative articles. The Wikipedia editing team edit relevant pages when new Cochrane Skin reviews are published. Future directions of the initiative include recruiting more trainees, improving skin-related Wikipedia content in other languages, and making further improvements to increase article quality ratings. For more information about how to participate, please visit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Medicine/Cochrane/How. This work has been published in the Journal of the American Academy for Dermatology.
Patient or healthcare consumer involvement: Cochrane Skin reviews all have consumer input through authorship or peer review to make sure they are relevant to patients. The result of the project is Wikipedia articles which are more accurate, up-to-date and evidence-based, so that healthcare consumers and potential patients viewing them have the best health information possible.