Patients and doctors alike refer to it and yet the Wikipedia online encyclopedia does not seem to be an indisputable reference. His disease sheets contain errors 9 times out of 10.
Wikipedia is popular with doctors … and misleads them. According to a study recently published in the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, almost all of the files on the 10 diseases that weigh the most on the American health system are wrong.
More than half of doctors use it
47 to 70% of physicians and medical students admit to using the tool in their practice. There could even be more, says Dr. Robert Hasty of Campbell University (North Carolina, USA): “Wikipedia is a bit like gas for doctors. Everyone has it, but no one wants to admit it, ”joked the researcher in the Campbell University journal. The problem, or at least the principle, is that the tool can be edited by anyone. Dr. Hasty has therefore reviewed 10 files on the diseases that make the most money in the United States, including cardiovascular disease (card “coronary heart disease”), disorders related to trauma (“concussion”) or diabetes (“type 2 diabetes”).
Significant errors
10 internal medicine residents each verified two articles in the study and compared them with the peer-reviewed literature. In 9 out of 10 cases, significant errors emerged. The concussion sheet is the only one to do well: no noticeable difference emerges, so much so that it seems to be written by professionals. But this exception confirms what should be the rule: the tool can in no way become a reference for professionals. “With the exception of psychiatric illnesses, scientific research has never, to our knowledge, relied on Wikipedia content,” insists Dr. Robert Hasty.
According to Dr Hasty, “Wikipedia has great potential” but there is a long way to go before the computer tool becomes a benchmark. He quotes in particular a study which compared Wikipedia to the encyclopedic reference: theEncyclopeadia Britannica. Here again, the online encyclopedia showed its weaknesses. “The idea behind Wikipedia is that mass produces better over time,” says Dr Hasty, “but our research shows that there is still a long way to go. “Caution must therefore be exercised when doctors or medical students consult the tool sheets… which must remain a solution of last resort.
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