As if it were needed, yesterday one more example emerged yesterday to demonstrate how the FDA is failing in the all important digital space. The National Institutes of Health announced a collaboration with the Wikimedia Foundation that has the aim to make "health and science information online more accessible and reliable." It is indeed a visionary and laudable goal. After all, evidence has demonstrated that health is one of the main reasons people go to the internet to seek information and that for those with chronic illnesses, it is an invaluable resource from which they not only get information, but act upon it.
That is why other healthcare agencies in government, including HHS, CDC and now NIH have taken many steps to embrace digital communications as a means to talk to patients and to provide useful resources to help them get access to quality information that will be of help to them. The efforts of these agencies span both a breadth and depth and convey that they understand the important role of the internet in healthcare communications.
all-day event on its Bethesda campus. Participants will learn about the
philosophy and mechanics of Wikipedia and will begin what is hoped to be a
long-term dialogue aimed at improving public knowledge about health, science,
and medicine. The international foundation has never before worked with a
federal agency or a health sciences institution."