More than half of U.S. adults turn to the Internet when they have health or medical questions, according to a survey from the Pew Research Center. (Did we really need a research center to tell us that?) More alarmingly, a survey in April found that 50 percent of doctors turn to Wikipedia for medical info!

How does Wikipedia fare as a medical reference? Its collaborative, user-generated philosophy generally means that errors are caught and corrected quickly. Several studies, including one examining health information, another probing articles on surgery, and one focusing on drugs, found the online encyclopedia to be almost entirely free of factual errors.

Better still, the articles improve significantly with time, according to a study Clauson published last December in the The Annals of Pharmacotherapy (vol 42, p 1814). “Wikipedia’s editing policy does work,” he says.

Read the article at newscientist.com

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