Wikipedia – challenges and new horizons in enhancing medical education
نویسندگان
چکیده
BACKGROUND Wikipedia gains growing attention as a provider of health information. This study aimed to investigate the use, relevance and challenges of Wikipedia among medical students. METHODS An online questionnaire was made accessible to students at five medical universities in Germany, Austria, and Norway. Besides demographical data, the questions covered the role of Wikipedia in the academic life of medical students. The questionnaire investigated if the students had ever found erroneous medical entries and whether they corrected these. RESULTS A frequent use of Wikipedia in general is statistically significant correlated with a frequent use in medical studies (p < 0.001). Information retrieved from Wikipedia is predominantly critically appraised either by comparing it to profound knowledge (79%) and/or to specific literature (75%). Despite most (97%) respondents disclosed that they already had found false information in Wikipedia, recognized errors were seldomly corrected (~20%). CONCLUSIONS The information retrieved from Wikipedia is critically appraised. However, we found shortcomings in handling erroneous entries. We argue for professional responsibility among medical students in dealing with this dynamic resource. Moreover, we encourage medical schools to supplement information to Wikipedia to further benefit from the vast possibilities of this platform.
منابع مشابه
New Horizons in Enhancing the Proliferation and Differentiation of Neural Stem Cells Using Stimulatory Effects of the Short Time Exposure to Radiofrequency Radiation
Mobile phone use and wireless communication technology have grown explosively over the past decades. This rapid growth has caused widespread global concern about the potential detrimental effects of this technology on human health. Stem cells generate specialized cell types of the tissue in which they reside through normal differentiation pathways. Considering the undeniable importance of stem ...
متن کاملCoronavirus and medical education: Getting change and turning to new education paradigm: the need for scaffolding learning in online training
Coronavirus pandemic has caused extensive changes in various fields. Education is one challenging and necessary dimension to be paid attention by policymakers and considered as a necessity. Due to changes in the methods and styles of providing medical education from face-to-face to virtual training, and due to its novelty in our country and several challenges ahead, it is necessary to take meas...
متن کاملSafety I to Safety II: A Paradigm Shift or More Work as Imagined?; Comment on “False Dawns and New Horizons in Patient Safety Research and Practice”
In their editorial, Mannion and Braithwaite contend that the approach to solving the problem of unsafe care, Safety I, is flawed and requires a shift in thinking to what they are calling Safety II. We have reservations as to whether by itself the shift from Safety I to Safety II is sufficient. Perhaps our failure to improve outcomes in the field of patient safety and quality lies less in our ap...
متن کاملMedical Education and Human Cloning Challenges
Introduction: Cloning technology has been strengthened a long human desire for eternal life. The possibility of human cloning is the new challenges in medical education and medical ethics. The present study discussed the different perspectives in this field. Methods: This study is a review article. Related books and some database such as SID, Irandoc, Elsevier, PubMed, Magiran were searched us...
متن کاملExposure to Mobile Phone Radiation Opens New Horizons in Alzheimer’s Disease Treatment
Alzheimer’s disease, the most common type of dementia and a progressive neurode-generative disease, occurs when the nerve cells in the brain die. Although there are medications that can help delay the development of Alzheimer’s disease, there is cur-rently no cure for this disease. Exposure to ionizing and non-ionizing radiation may cause adverse health effects such as cancer. Looking at th...
متن کامل