The New Scientist reports that “Sixty-one per cent of American adults seek out health advice online.” Looking for medical advice online is okay as long as you don’t rely on a unreliable sites. For instance, who would trust a user generated site like Wikipedia? The answer to this question, is doctors.
According to a report in April by US healthcare consultancy Manhattan Research, fifty percent of U.S. doctors turn to Wikipedia for medical information.
While others consider Wikipedia unreliable due to potential alterations in the content of a particular topic or subject, one must remember that these great sources of information come with references to validate the content. That is what doctors do- they do not rely immediately on what they read regarding, say, a disease state or pharmaceutical. They head to the references, that are unmanipulative, and make decisions based on what they discover.