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Wikipedia Medical Articles Found To Have High Error Rate

Rambo Tribble (1273454) writes "A group of researchers publishing in the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association found that 90% of the Wikipedia articles they sampled contained errors regarding common medical conditions. Unsurprisingly, they recommend your General Practitioner as a more reliable source, while noting, '47% to 70% of physicians and medical students admitting to using [Wikipedia] as a reference.' At issue in the study is the small sample size the researchers used: 10 medical conditions. There are also ongoing efforts to improve the quality of Wikipedia's articles. According to a Wikipedia spokesman, '... especially in relation to health and medicine.' The BBC has more approachable coverage."

5 of 200 comments (clear)

  1. Now, combine it with the /. error rate by mehrotra.akash · · Score: 5, Funny

    A /. article mentions that Wikipedia has an error in 90% of medical articles
    Now, keep in mind that /. itself has an error in x% of news items posted here
    So, the actual error rate of Wikipedia medical articles should be (1-x/100)*90 % shouldnt it?
    Assuming it is actually 90% would lead to the conclusion that /. has a 0% error rate...

    1. Re:Now, combine it with the /. error rate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      If you wait another week we'll have another sample.

  2. Re:Osteopath cred? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Oh, you can accept wisdom from osteopaths. First, you have to take a single drop and put it in a vat of thousands of gallons of water. Then you distill that until one drop is left. Put that drop in a second vat of thousands of gallons of water, take one drop of the result, and then go to the NIH and get them to fund a study. Complete the study, get it peer-reviewed and published in a real journal. Then you'll have accepted wisdom from osteopaths. Trust me, it's the homeopathic way.

  3. Re:Osteopath cred? by ColdWetDog · · Score: 3, Funny

    You took the wrong path there. Turn around before you get hurt.

    --
    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  4. Re: Let's get this out of the way... by M1FCJ · · Score: 4, Funny

    We're talking about osteopaths, they wouldn't know their arse from their elbows...