Known as Medpedia, the site will be free and available to the public just like Wikipedia and will be written and edited by volunteers when it launches at the end of this year. Contributors to Medpedia must have an M.D. or a Ph.D in a medical field.
The site aims to become the largest source of medical information on the internet, with pages on 30,000 diseases and a large number of drugs, as well as details of medical procedures and hospitals. The goal is to create Web pages with easy-to-understand information and make available information on more than 10,000 prescription drugs.
The medical encyclopedia will make complex clinical information understandable by the general public through the use of videos and diagrams. However, users will still be encouraged to seek professional advice if they think they are unwell.
Participants include the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, Stanford School of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Federal Drug Administration and many other organizations.
A preview version of the site was launched Thursday but the full site is due to go live by the end of the year.
