 David Branford, PHC RIS
For the health researcher it pays to be a little ‘internet aware’, because there are now more web-based research options than ever before. Web 2.0 applications like Twitter and Facebook are now receiving a lot of media exposure, and there are a great many web 2.0 applications available to the health researcher. Two such applications are blogs and wikis.
Blogs
The name ‘Blog’ is an abbreviation of ‘web log’. It is something akin to an on-line diary or journal, and ‘blogging’ refers to adding to this diary or journal. The individual who is blogging may be another researcher, a patient, clinician, doctor, nurse, etc. Blogs are useful not only for the facts they may contain, but also for up-to-the-minute opinions and personal accounts and experiences.
Blogs about health and healthcare may be found via a conventional web search. An example is Mental Health Blog at <www.mentalhealthblog.com>. Alternatively blogs can also be found by searching within popular blog websites, for example <www.blog.com> and <www.blogger.com>.
Wikis
Wikis (wiki is pronounced ‘wicky’) are web pages which can be edited and updated by the public. They are useful as an information repository, and may take the form of an encyclopedia on the discussed topic. A popular wiki is Wikipedia, which is a free web-based encyclopedia, and contains a vast knowledge-base of information on a vast array of topics. However like blogs, there are also more specific and personalised wikis dedicated to health and healthcare.
Like blogs, wikis will often contain up-to-the-minute information about healthcare topics. However, whereas a blog may be well-suited to a simpler journal-like system of entries, a wiki is more community-oriented, and includes features to make it useful as a centrally-managed on-line information repository amongst a small to large community.
Example wikis include Mental Health Wiki at <www.mentalhealthwiki.org> or WikiPH (a public health wiki) at <www.wikiph.org> and many others can be found on the net.
Of course, as always when searching for information on-line, one should be mindful of its accuracy and credibility, and steps to verify details with credible sources etc. should be taken.
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