Wikipedia cancer information 'more dense'

PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 16 (UPI) -- Wikipedia ranks higher in search engine results for diseases, updates faster and provides "more dense" information, U.S. and Israeli researchers say.

Dr. Yaacov Lawrence, the study leader and director of the Center for Translational Research in Radiation Oncology at the Sheba Medical Center in Israel, and Dr. Malolan Rajagopalan of the University of Pittsburgh chose 10 cancers and selected key factual statements for each cancer from standard oncology textbooks.

Medical student volunteers examined the the National Cancer Institute's Physician Data Query -- comprehensive peer-reviewed, patient-oriented cancer database -- and Wikipedia articles against the prepared statements.

The research revealed that Wikipedia updates faster than PDQ; but the hyperlinks embedded within Wikipedia take the user to more dense information, while PDQ provides more simplified explanations on the content a user clicks on for more information.

"PDQ's readability is doubtless due to the site's professional editing, whereas Wikipedia's lack of readability may reflect its varied origins and haphazard editing," Lawrence says in a statement. "Overall our results are reassuring: on the one hand Wikipedia appears to be extremely accurate, on the other, the resources invested in the creation and upkeep of the PDQ are clearly justified. The sites appear to be complementary -- but I recommend to my patients that they start with PDQ where they are less likely to get lost in jargon and hyperlinks."

The findings are published in the Journal of Oncology Practice.