Medpedia's Potential

[Commentary] Medpedia launched this week, prompting questions from many corners about how it fits in to the current realities of the health care world. Most people looking for health info online start at a search engine. 74% of US adults are online; 75% look for health info online; 47% use Wikipedia. Medpedia needs to either break into search engine results OR Internet users need a reason to change their habits (ie, so far most haven't been burned by erroneous info and they haven't been convinced by any pro-MD marketing campaign to make a switch from the "good enough" solutions). However, Pew Internet consistently finds (as does the National Cancer Institute, and the Center for Studying Health System Change) that when facing a serious health question, most adults turn to a health professional first. So there is still an opening for a MD-vetted information service.