“Wikipedia articles appear in the top 10 results for more than 70 per cent of medical queries in four different search engines…

…Even more disconcerting is that 50 percent of doctors turn to the user-generated Wikipedia for health info.”

Read the full article at New Scientist.

I wrote a post 18 months ago about using search engines, more specifically Google, to search for health information. Nothing much has changed. The distinction between content and advertising is blurred, and it’s all too easy to end up on a dodgy website.

So who can you trust for reliable information?

A good place to start is to look for the HONcode icon at the bottom of a web page. You will find it in the footer of pages on reputable sites – see for example Psych Central, the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance and the Black Dog Institute. The icon indicates that the site has gone through a certification process for the reliability and credibility of its information. It has become the industry standard for reputable health sites.