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DrMag writes:

We've probably all said that Wikipedia should never be used as a primary source in any study. A recent publication [jaoa.org] gives that philosophy teeth, finding that in 9 of the Wikipedia articles about the 10 most costly diseases, there are significant errors that are contradictory to actual published literature.

Since its 2001 launch, Wikipedia has become the most popular general reference site on the Internet, ranking 6th globally based on Internet traffic.

Wikipedia's prominence has been made possible by its fundamental design as a wiki, or collaborative database, allowing all users the ability to add, delete, and edit information at will. However, it is this very feature that has raised concern in the medical community regarding the reliability of the information it contains.

Despite these concerns, Wikipedia has become a popular source of health care information, with 47% to 70% of physicians and medical students admitting to using it as a reference. In actuality, these figures may be higher because some researchers suspect its use is underreported. Although the effect of Wikipedia's information on medical decision making is unclear, it almost certainly has an influence.