Doctors, Ph.D.s to edit new Wikipedia of medical information

Currier said that unlike other online efforts around health information, Medpedia will provide all information relevant to a specific topic on one page and not chop it up over multiple pages to try to generate more page views. In addition, the navigation hierarchy has been designed to be simple for all levels of users, he added. While the main page on a topic will be written in language easy for consumers to understand, each topic will also feature a technical page for medical professionals or for patients as they delve deeper into a particular condition or topic, Currier added.

"It's feeling inevitable that all the medical and health information will be available worldwide at no charge via an open, collaborative platform like Medpedia," said Linda Hawes Clever, a medical doctor and clinical professor at University of California, San Francisco, Medical School, in a statement. "Medpedia will also serve as an important place for medical professionals to get credit and become known for their specialties."

Clever is also a member of Medpedia's advisory board.

In the future, the site will show text-based advertising from third-party advertising sites such as Google Ad Sense. A link will allow users to flag inappropriate ads, which will then be reviewed by editors and potentially prevented from being shown on the site in the future, Medpedia said.

For its part, Harvard Medical School will publish content from its faculty on the site that won't be editable. Other organizations, such as the University of Michigan Medical School, will encourage their staffs to edit Medpedia, Currier noted.

Medpedia noted that other health and medical organizations supporting the effort include the American College of Physicians, the Oxford Health Alliance, the Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies and the European Federation of Neurological Associations. These groups are contributing content and promoting participation in Medpedia to their members.

Medpedia is also receiving content and cooperation from the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other government research groups.