Medpedia: Do Biostatisticians
Have a Role?
originating authors to possess either a medical or
doctoral degree. Contributors and editors are
carefully vetted and must use their real names.
Their disclosure of financial and other relation-
ships is required.
What do Medpedia editors and contributors do?
Editors can initiate articles (as originating authors)
or directly edit the pages of medical articles. Other
contributors can suggest, write, and recommend
M
edpedia (www.medpedia.com) is a project
edits for articles using a “suggest changes” feature.
sponsored by the University of California
Articles are written on two levels; one version is
at Berkeley, Harvard, Yale, the University
appropriate for lay persons and a second is written
of Michigan, and several health care organizations.
for medical professionals.
Its goal is “to evolve a new model for sharing and
Professional organizations can create their own
advancing knowledge about health, medicine, and
groups within the Medpedia web site. The American
the body among medical professionals and the gen-
Heart Association (AHA) is an example. Currently,
eral public.” While Medpedia offers a question-and-
the AHA maintains a group with 34 members.
answer bulletin board and medical alerts, its primary
There are also special interest groups built around
focus is on the creation of original medical articles
subject matter interest; the largest is the Healthcare
for use by the lay public and medical community.
IT Group, with a membership of 73. These two
Medpedia is a wiki. What is a wiki? According
types of e-networks can provide opportunities for
to Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org), it is “a web
professional statistical societies to gain visibility for
site that uses wiki software, allowing the easy cre-
their membership.
ation and editing of any number of interlinked
What role could statisticians play within
web pages using a simplified markup language.” Like
Medpedia? Statisticians could review the statis-
Wikipedia, Medpedia has a community of contrib-
tical content of articles and contribute or sug-
utors who use the site to create an accessible body
gest revisions. If evidence-based medicine is to
of articles.
provide sound recommendations based on avail-
Medpedia differs from Wikipedia in several
able evidence, statisticians are needed to provide
ways, however. Medpedia requires its editors and
guidance on the validity and precision of the
supportive data.
Biostatisticians also could contribute articles.
Global health care providers, with newly emerging
medical infrastructures, could make use of basic
Statistics May Help
Medpedia entries about how to conduct community
health surveys, case control studies, and clinical tri-
als. Introductory articles about other projects, such
Job Applicants
as the R software project (www.r-project.org), would
provide information to health care profession-
SmartMoney examined data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and
als in need of data analysis tools. Overall, statisti-
the Milken Institute, an independent economic think tank, to find
cians writing and editing articles on Medpedia have
fields of study that may help upcoming job applicants. Read about
the opportunity to contribute to a global knowl-
the five majors—including statistics—that are closely tied to growing
edge project that may contribute to transforming
industries at
www.smartmoney.com/personal-finance/college-planning/
world health. n
5-College-Majors-That-Can-Help-You-Land-a-Job. n
12 AMsTAT NEWs OCTObER 2009
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