Ask Dr Wiki

AskDrWiki.com is a medical wiki created by Cleveland Clinic Cardiology Fellows Kenny Civello and Brian Jefferson. The project was started as a response to the lack of free online medical information found in several community hospitals and was created to form a repository of cardiovascular information that could be readily accessed for reference. With the assistance of other cardiovascular fellows Dr. Mike McWilliams and Dr. Shane Bailey, the site became a useful resource for commonly accessed medical information for other cardiologist and fellows in training. AskDrWiki's earliest article was August 21st, 2006. The site now serves as a place to publish medical review articles, clinical notes, pearls, and medical images. The wiki allows anyone with a medical background to contribute or edit medical articles.

History

In December 2006, AskDrWiki was referenced in Dean Giustini's British Medical Journal article How Web 2.0 is Changing Medicine [ [http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/333/7582/1283?ct "How Web 2.0 is Changing Medicine"] ] as one of the early adopters of using Video Hosting sites such as Youtube and Google video to host medical videos. AskDrWiki was then discussed in a Nature Medicine article discussing medical wikis [ [http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/v13/n3/full/nm0307-231.html WikiMedia Article in Nature Medicine about Medical Wikis] ] . Since then AskDrWiki has been featured in other media including The Plain Dealer (newspaper) [ [http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/other/1175158085286060.xml&coll=2 A Wikipedia-style site for Medical Information] ] , Medical Economics [ [http://www.memag.com/memag/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=421602 Wiki for Physicians Gains Foothold] ] and The American Medical Association News [ [http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2007/05/07/bil20507.htm Physician Wikis:Do-it-Yourself Textbooks] ] .

The purpose of the site is to provide reliable and easily accessed health information for the medical community including physicians, nurses, and medical students. The information published on the site is not meant to supersede medical training but to serve as a repository of medical review articles to give medical professionals an online source where they can review medical topics. The website is similar to Wikipedia because it runs on Mediawiki software allowing users to add and edit articles, but differs from Wikipedia because all users must be credentialed based on their medical training before they are allowed to publish. Its goal is not to compete with Wikipedia regarding consumer heath related topics, but to serve as an expert medical wiki and provide a source of up to date medical information for healthcare providers.

Editorial Policy

User Credentialing

All new users will be required to submit their medical training, degree, and current hospital or medical school. All credentialed users will be listed on the editorial board and are encouraged to publish their resume or curriculum vitae stating their education, medical training, board certification, and research. This process will remove the transparency of anonymous article creation and provide an extra level or credibility.

Article Submission

#All articles will be submitted by credentialed medical professionals.
#To qualify for publication material must be clearly presented and be referenced with peer reviewed literature.
#If medical topics written about are not referenced and are based on anyone's individual or anecdotal experience (The Art of Medicine) they should be designated as such.
#Controversial topics may be presented, but they should be identified as such and every effort must be made by the editor to ensure that a balanced view of each controversy is represented based on referenced literature. Each article is subject to discussion or debate from the community.

Article Review

# Once articles are submitted they will be reviewed by specialty editors and can be added or edited by the AskDrWiki community.
#Notification of new or changes in articles will be made through RSS Feeds.
#Using Wiki technology users can scrutinize the content and add or edit the article. If there is a disagreement in the article efforts to come to a consensus will be made on the discussion page which is an inherent part of the wiki process.

Original Research

Any original research published on AskDrWiki is subject to peer review and open commentary from the AskDrWiki community. Edits and comments can be seen on the edits and history page. A conflict of interest statement must also accompany the article. Each original research contribution will be labeled as original research on the page.

Copyrights

AskDrWiki is a free site licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons license. Work that infringes on copyrights will not be allowed.

Conflict Of Interest.

AskDrWiki is a non profit website (501c3 status pending) that has no financial agenda or purpose to refer patients to particular medical centers, companies or providers. The content is determined by its users and at no time is there any influence by advertising.

References