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Researching your conditions and treatments online can be incredibly helpful to your understanding and empowerment as a patient. But Kevin M.D. points out that you must be careful where you turn for information.
Don't Use Wikipedia for Drug Information
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.
Here is a link to Medscape Drug Reference, which is referred to in the article and recognized as being significantly more reliable than Wikipedia:
Medscape Drug Reference
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Content by Diana E. Lee.
2 comments:
The other problem with Wikipedia is since anyone can edit it, at any time the information could be changed to something incorrect.
Be well,
MJ
I like Dr. Clauson's comment in the Reuter's article, that Wiki can be a good jumping-off point for research but shouldn't be seen as the last word on any topic.
Ever read the Migraine information on Wiki? When I wrote a column about problems with it, it contained articles backing up factual citations that were disclaimed by the authors of the articles as being opinion!
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