You're feeling tired and achy. Everything tastes strange, and something deep within warns you not to sample the chip dip in the staff room. You're just not up for much at all, really, and the malaise only grows as the day drags on. Sounds like a case for Dr. Wikipedia! Julie Beck, at The Atlantic, covers an initiative that could supplant the dismal Dr. Google and his psychotic colleague, Dr. Yahoo Answers — but wonders whether we should be getting health information from the Internet at all.
Through Wikiproject Medicine, some medical professionals (and other health-savvy Wikipedia editors) have taken it upon themselves to improve the quality of medical information available on the site. And, in the same spirit, the University of California, San Francisco will be offering a class this year that gives fourth-year medical students course credit in exchange for editing Wikipedia articles. I spoke with Dr. Amin Azzam, a health sciences associate clinical professor at UCSF, who will be teaching the course, about how it will be run, and the impact that Wikipedia has on public health.
