As long as your doctor's first name is not...

Submitted by domih2009 on Sat, 08/01/2009 - 1:06pm

Larry, Moe or Curly, you're fine.

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Not the best idea

Submitted by Thiazolium on Sat, 08/01/2009 - 10:34am

Medical professionals have a vast arsenal of medical resources at their disposal.  Wikipedia is alright for anecdotal perusal but not when someone's health is at stake. Wikipedia requires intervention to keep the info up to date; critical changes may not be posted which may be important.  For my own research when comparing data gathered from peer reviewed journals and Wikipedia posts, huge gaps of missing information become  apparent. Wikipedia is a fun web info source, but neither complete nor is the veracity of the information presented verified. The old use-caution-when-entering or using this info should be applied.   

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Thanks, now I know how to

Submitted by DBsantos77 on Fri, 07/31/2009 - 11:03pm

Thanks, now I know how to save on my insurance.

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 I dont even know what to

Submitted by n0ctis on Fri, 07/31/2009 - 7:08pm

 I dont even know what to say.

________________________________________________________________
.: vires et honos :.

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Well, I think that a decent

Submitted by Vegan on Fri, 07/31/2009 - 4:26pm

Well, I think that a decent doctor would be able to smell bullshit on a Wikipedia entry.

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Well, that explains why the

Submitted by jcollins on Fri, 07/31/2009 - 3:17pm

Well, that explains why the doc's always late to the office visits.  

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Seen it before

Submitted by quickone on Fri, 07/31/2009 - 12:55pm

I was watching a tumor being removed from a child's brain and was
making small talk with the anesthesiologist (I was job shadowing) and we
started talking about his next surgery.  He said it was a pretty rare
disease and did not know much about so he looked it up on Wikipedia. 

I
was suprised his computer even had the internet in the OR and much more
suprised that he went right to wikipedia to look it up.   Every time I
have looked up a disease/disorder on wikipedia it has been correct or
at least not false about the information given.  

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I don't see much wrong here...

Submitted by Elric on Fri, 07/31/2009 - 12:17pm

FWIW, I'm a professional engineer and I consult wikipedia to do my work as well. I often need to refresh myself on something I have done coursework or professional work on in the past but have not actively participated in recently. Engineering, like medicine is an extremely broad field even within a particular flavor (i.e. Electrical engineering) and maintaining a high level of expertise in more than a few focus areas is daunting. A quick internet/wikipedia check will often refresh my memory or give a quick update on current state of the art since I last did work in a particular area.

My education and experience are still my guide, it's not like learning the topic cold with no background, the reference consultation just helps me reconfirm things or highlight new events I need to research in professional journals, etc, to do my best work.

Similarly, I wouldn't mind a bit if my doctor touched base with a wikipedia entry to refresh his knowledge, reconfirm his memory, or get pointers to new references on a condition he hadn't seen in a while or only studied in school, really that's the essence of being a good medical practitioner, IMHO.

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Hmm...

Submitted by foamcup on Fri, 07/31/2009 - 11:43am

If they consult Wikipedia and then click through to the source materials, that's fine.  Using just Wikipedia only?  Man, I don't know about that.

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