Wikipedia: A Medical Student Educational Project to Edit Wikipedia in Preparation for Practicing Evidence-Based Pain Medicine

Abstract

Objective: Wikipedia is commonly used to acquire information about various medical conditions such as chronic pain. Ideally, better online pain management content could reduce the burden of opioid use disorders. Our goal was to improve the quality of the content available on Wikipedia to make it more accurate and applicable to medical students and the general public while training medical students to practice evidence-based medicine and critically assess their sources of information. Methods: An elective class in Neuroscience, Pain, and Opioids composed of 10 medical students met biweekly to discuss landmark and practice-changing research articles in the fields of acute pain, chronic pain, and opioid management. The professor chose Wikipedia articles relevant to this course. Three independent viewers analyzed the quality of citations, anecdotal medical content, and content value for both patients and medical professionals. As part of their coursework, students then edited the Wikipedia articles. Results: Although some of the Wikipedia pain topic content (6.7% ± 2.0) was anecdotal, financially biased, or inconsistent with Western Medical Practice content, overall articles included primarily high-quality citations (85.6% ± 3.1). On a 0-5 Likert scale, students felt content would be moderately helpful for both medical students/professionals (3.4 ± 0.2) and laypersons (3.5 ± 0.2). Editing and adding citations was feasible, but novel material was often reverted. Conclusion: A significant amount of pain medicine content was relevant and amenable to student editing. Therefore, future use of this tactic could provide a unique opportunity to integrate evidence-based medicine into the medical curriculum and have a direct impact on the widely available medical information. Future refinement in the editorial process may also further improve online information.

Wikipedia in Health Professional Schools: from an Opponent to an Ally

“…The diversity and breadth of the examples we summarize demonstrate an emerging “ally-ship” between health professions education and Wikipedia. Teaching students to contribute to Wikipedia provides excellent opportunities for students to develop evidence-based medicine skills [ 24 – 26 ]. Notably, there are a myriad of ways to deliver these courses to the audience, including live sessions, videos, and online interactive platforms, any/all of which can be delivered both in person and remotely [ 25 ].…”

Library instruction and Wikipedia: investigating students’ perceived information literacy, lifelong learning, and social responsibility through Wikipedia editing

“…Prior use of Wikipedia editing with first-year medical students has shown that it can improve their confidence in locating knowledge gaps, literature searching, group work, and selecting reliable sources [ 10 ]. Subsequent studies with third- and fourth-year medical students, and allied health students, cite an increase in students' self-perceived ability to practice evidence-based medicine and satisfaction with “giving back” to Wikipedia [ 7 , 9 ]. As such, Wikipedia editing serves as a vehicle for social responsibility by allowing students to contribute to, improve, and expand health information read by millions [ 14 ].…”

“…For this study, we define lifelong learning in the context of information literacy skills, specifically, their ability to search and retrieve biomedical information, critically appraise the information they find, and their ability to apply it to patients and populations (in this case, to readers of Wikipedia) [ 19 ]. Most studies on Wikipedia in the classroom have been concentrated in fields outside of medicine [ 3 – 6 ], other sciences or allied health [ 11 – 13 , 20 , 21 ], or with more advanced third- and fourth-year medical students [ 7 , 9 ]. Furthermore, most studies investigating information literacy outcomes through Wikipedia editing assignments are concentrated in fields outside of medicine [ 6 , 12 , 22 – 24 ].…”

Enculturating a Community of Action (CoA): A qualitative study of health professions educators’ perspectives on teaching with Wikipedia

“…10 The first reported use of Wikipedia in 2012 was a neuroscience course in which students edited Wikipedia as a course assignment. 11 Later, Azzam et al 13 described the first for-credit medical course fully dedicated to editing and writing medical articles on Wikipedia. Since then, other health professions have reported integrating Wikipedia into their curriculum, including courses in pain management, 13 pharmacy, 14 nursing, 15 and evidence-based medicine.…”

“…11 Later, Azzam et al 13 described the first for-credit medical course fully dedicated to editing and writing medical articles on Wikipedia. Since then, other health professions have reported integrating Wikipedia into their curriculum, including courses in pain management, 13 pharmacy, 14 nursing, 15 and evidence-based medicine. 16 Despite these offerings, tensions still exist over Wikipedia as a trustworthy information source and whether the academic community should promote its use in their classrooms, with some students and instructors relegated to using Wikipedia as a "guilty secret".…”