Medpedia: Reliable Crowdsourcing of Health and Medical Information

July 24, 2009 | by

According to a recent survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 61% of adults look online for health information [1]. Surprisingly however, three-quarters of those searching don’t consistently check the source and date of the health reference they find [2]. Indeed, searching for health information online is dangerous and finding credible, up-to-date sources of health information can be a challenge.

Wikipedia is the Web’s most popular free online encyclopedia. If you’ve ever searched for health or medical content online, Wikipedia articles typically appear at or near the top of search engine results. Nevertheless, Wikipedia’s medical entries are prone to manipulation and are not reliable [3]. Moreover, in many cases you don’t know who has contributed content nor their background or expertise.

Wisdom of crowds is the new model for innovation on the Internet in which collective knowledge is thought to be superior to the intelligence of the few. Nevertheless, not all crowds are wise. Recent cases and new research suggests that crowdsourcing is only truly successful when it is focused on a specific task and when the most effective collaborators are involved [4].

Enter Medpedia.

medpedia-logo

The Medpedia Project is a long-term, worldwide initiative to develop an online collaborative source of health and medical information for medical professionals and the general public. A joint effort with Harvard Medical School, Stanford School of Medicine, Berkeley School of Public Health, University of Michigan Medical School and other global health organizations, the intent of Medpedia is to be a repository of up-to-date unbiased medical information, contributed and maintained by health experts around the world and freely available to the general public. Unlike Wikipedia, which allows anyone to modify pages, Medpedia content creators and editors are required to have an M.D., D.O. or Ph.D. in a biomedical field; each contributor has an author page detailing their qualifications and background.

Health Highlights – April 13th, 2009

April 14, 2009 | by

Health Highlights is a biweekly summary of particularly interesting articles from credible sources of health and medical information that we follow & read. For a complete list of recommeded sources, see our links page.

Health Highlights

Following the Biomedical and Healthcare Blogosphere

April 4, 2009 | by

The mission of Highlight HEALTH is to promote advances in biomedical research, to encourage health literacy and to provide reliable sources of health and medical information (more on the about page). In support of these goals, when Highlight HEALTH hosted the Holiday Edition of Grand Rounds in December 2008, I introduced subscription options for eight credible, rotating health and medicine blog carnivals.

There’s a revolution occurring on the Web: those “authoritative” articles written on traditional, static websites are being replaced with blogs, wikis and online social networks. In the sphere of health, medicine and information technology, this “real-time Web” consists of many who are professionals in the field; their posts are listed below.
In the digital age, these are the characteristics of new media: recent, relevant, reachable and reliable.

Fast-forward to April 2009. There are now ten health and medicine blog carnivals that offer email and/or RSS subscription options. Each carnival feed post links directly to the blog hosting the carnival. You never have to search for the latest edition of any of your favorite health and medicine blog carnivals again! There’s something for everyone: the weekly best of the “medical blogosphere”, nursing, genes and genetic diseases, Web 2.0 and medicine, cancer research, neuroscience and psychology, surgical experiences, health policy, medical librarianship and palliative care.

Subscribe with RSS Grand Rounds Subscribe with RSS Change of Shift
Subscribe with RSS Gene Genie Subscribe with RSS Medicine 2.0
Subscribe with RSS Cancer Research Subscribe with RSS Encephalon
Subscribe with RSS SurgeXperiences Subscribe with RSS Health Wonk Review
Subscribe with RSS MedLib’s Round Subscribe with RSS Palliative Care Grand Rounds
carnival-calendar

A Google Calendar highlighting all of these carnivals is also available. The calendar is publicly accessible, so if you have your own Google Calendar, you can conveniently follow the Health and Medicine Blog Carnival schedule right next to your own by clicking on the +GoogleCalendar icon in the lower right corner of the calendar. If you click on any event, the description links directly to the specific carnival feed. You’re just three clicks away from the latest edition of any carnival in the biomedical and healthcare blogosphere. You can also subscribe to the Health and Medicine Blog Carnival calendar using iCal or RSS.

If you’re interested in more than one carnival, an aggregated feed is available. The Health and Medicine Blog Carnival Mashup enables you to receive notification of all the carnivals by email and/or RSS.

twitter-for-health

Lastly, many people are using Twitter to complement or replace RSS. If you use the microblogging service, you can also keep up with all of the new carnival editions by following @BioMedCarnivals on Twitter.

My hope is that these subscription options increase the popularity and readership of each of the carnivals. With all these choices, it’s easier than ever to follow your favorite health and medicine blog carnival(s).

Do you know someone who isn’t reading any of the health and medicine blog carnivals? Click on the “ShareThis” button below this post and share on Facebook or email this article to a friend so that they can learn how to follow the biomedical and healthcare blogosphere.

Health Highlights – January 6th, 2009

January 6, 2009 | by

Health Highlights is a biweekly summary of particularly interesting articles from credible sources of health and medical information that we follow & read. For a complete list of recommeded sources, see our links page.

Health Highlights

Following the Tweets of Health

November 1, 2008 | by

Twitter is a micro-blogging service that allows users to send and receive updates or “tweets”, which are short text-based posts. In contrast to a conventional blog, which combines text, images and links to other websites, a micro-blog post is typically restricted to 140 characters. Twitter users can “follow” others by visiting their profile page and clicking the “follow” button. Following someone simply means you will receive their Twitter updates. Interestingly, Twitter is also frequently being used as an instant messaging service, with lengthy real-time exchanges between users.

twitter-logo

You might think that very little can be said when you’re restricted to 140 words, but just the opposite is true. You have to be succinct and get straight to the point. This has been a criticism of Twitter since it was launched in October 2006. Call it what you want. Soundbites … media snacking … everyone is busy today and consuming small bits of information is how we’re keep up with the world’s never-ending data stream.

Although there’s been a great deal of speculation in the blogosphere about the death of Twitter, it remains the most widely used micro-blogging service. I’ve mentioned previously that Twitter is a useful communication tool. The social media service allows you to connect with other people who share your interests. I’ve found a great many people interested in health and medicine on Twitter, and have been actively using it since early this year.

Mark Hawker, a health care informatician in the U.K., recently published a list of the Top 30 Health Tweeple or Twitter users. I’m honored to be one of the 30 Twitter users on the list. The top 30 health tweeple include physicians, nurses, medical librarians, medicine and health 2.0 educators and advocates, and healthcare entrepreneurs from around the world. Mark compiled the list of health tweeple you should follow “based on the quality of their contributions and their overall influence in the field.”

However, it was soon realized that many health tweeple were missing from the list. Thus, Mark’s follow-up post, The Forgotten Health Tweeple rounds the list up to 50. Although many of the top 50 health tweeple I already follow, Mark’s list introduced me to others I had not yet discovered.

Even though it’s subjective, I think Mark’s top 50 list accurately identifies people that are actively “tweeting” and discussing health, health 2.0 and medicine 2.0 online. This niche social network within a social network — the health community on Twitter — posts useful and informative content and frequently engages one another, exchanging information and resources. If you use Twitter and you’re interested in health, I highly recommend you follow the top 50 health tweeple.

Interestingly, consumers are also looking for companies on social media websites. Indeed, a recent study found that 93% of social media users believe a company should have a presence in social media [1]. This means that brands are being recognized and sought after in a social media environment. I mention this because I maintain two separate Twitter accounts, one for Highlight HEALTH, which provides a way for Twitter users to stay up-to-date with new articles and resources posted on the Highlight HEALTH websites, and a second for personal use (my personal account made the top 30 list). Feel free to follow both.

A word of caution: in my experience, it’s difficult to keep up with the flow of information when you follow too many people. I try very hard to only follow people that are engaging and share my interests. Even when you’re media snacking, you can eat too much!

Here’s a tip: easily keep up with tweets directed at you by locating the RSS link at the bottom of the @Replies page and subscribing to it in your feed reader. You can also convert the feed to email using a service such as Feed My Inbox and you’ll always know when someone sends you a tweet, even if you’re not currently using Twitter.

References

  1. Cone Finds that Americans Expect Companies to Have a Presence in Social Media. Cone Inc. press release. 2008 Sep 25.