Wikipedia:Reference desk/Guidelines/Medical advice

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The Wikipedia reference desk is not an appropriate place to request medical, legal or other professional advice, including any kind of medical diagnosis or prognosis. Any reader may and should remove questions that appear to be soliciting medical, legal or other professional advice, or answers that give the impression of providing such.

Note: This guideline describes types of medical advice that are considered inappropriate to offer on Wikipedia as derived by the consensus of Wikipedia volunteers. Be aware that this guideline is not intended to define what constitutes the "practice of medicine" for legal or professional purposes, nor should any part of this guideline be interpreted as supplanting or superseding the regulations of any government agency or professional body.

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[edit] Why?

All reference desk editors are volunteer contributors who are subject to existing Wikipedia guidelines, which specifically state that Wikipedia is not to be used or relied upon for professional advice. Even if such advice were permitted by Wikipedia, it is not possible to conduct examinations of users with medical problems anonymously over the internet. The Reference Desk is not an advice page, and moreover there is the real possibility of doing harm to readers by advising them on medical issues—either because the advice is dangerous or because it discourages them from seeing a medical professional. Therefore medical advice must not be given by question-answerers, and should not be requested. We can, of course, answer general factual questions about medicine and medical conditions, taking special care to base our answers on reliable sources, but these facts must not be construed to apply to any particular individual for purposes of diagnosis. Since issues regarding the definition of and appropriate way to handle medical advice have been a subject of frequent debate, some specific guidelines for this issue have been agreed upon.

[edit] What does this guideline apply to?

Any posted comment containing a diagnosis, a prognosis based on that diagnosis, or a suggested form of treatment or cure, in response to symptoms presented in a question, is considered inappropriate for the reference desk, as are questions that seem to be implicitly or explicitly requesting such advice.

  • A diagnosis is the process of identifying a medical condition or disease by its symptoms [adapted from the diagnosis article]. An example of a diagnosis: X says "I'm having memory problems". Y responds "you might have Alzheimer's disease".
  • A prognosis is the prediction of how a patient's disease will progress, and whether there is chance of recovery [from the prognosis article]. For example, Y says "by age 50, you could lose your memory".
  • A treatment is any type or form of medication (conventional or alternative) intended to alleviate the presented symptoms or cure the disease as diagnosed. For example, Y says "try chocolate cake; I've heard it works like magic with Alzheimer's".

Note that questions may be about a medical topic ('What is sleep apnea?', for example) without necessarily seeking medical advice, and this is acceptable.

[edit] Distinguishing between what is and what is not acceptable

Here is a test that can help to distinguish between what is and what is not acceptable. If the answer to the question is given in a Wikipedia article, not needing any interpretation of the condition of any actual person, it is generally acceptable to answer the question. In contrast, suppose the following question is asked:

I have a persistent cough. Can that be caused by heartburn? Tussitor 23:59, 31 December 2000 (UTC)

Although we can learn from the articles Cough and Heartburn that in some patients heartburn is a causative factor, there is no article in Wikipedia that states that specifically this questioner's cough may be caused by heartburn. The question is therefore off limits. Similarly, questions whether some condition is normal (it may be normal for some people and abnormal for others), or whether some treatment offers relief, are typically questions for which a qualified answer requires examining the patient and their medical history, and must therefore not be answered.

[edit] Dealing with questions asking for medical advice

Questions that appear to be soliciting medical, legal or other professional advice, including any answers so far provided for them (regardless of their nature), should be removed and replaced with a neutral boilerplate message (such as {{RD-deleted}}) informing the questioner of the removal and pointing to the reference desk guidelines.

  1. Verify that the question asks for medical advice as detailed above. Typically a poster will ask about one or more symptoms, and solicit an opinion about diagnosis (What is this?), prognosis (Should I be worried about this?), or courses of action (What should I do about this?). The symptoms will be those of the poster, or ascribed to a friend or relative.
  2. If the question appears to be asking for medical advice, remove it and any responses given so far. In their place, insert a neutral boilerplate message (such as {{RD-deleted}}) pointing to the appropriate section of the reference desk guidelines. You may wish to sign the message or provide additional information about why the question was removed, although this is not required. The section header should usually be left intact unless it contains the question or a substantial part of it, in which case it may be desirable to change it.
  3. Consider leaving a note on the user talk page of the person who posted the question, explaining that we cannot offer medical advice. This may be accomplished using a suitable template (such as {{subst:RD medremoval}}) or a personalized message. Encourage the poster to direct their medical questions to their physician, pharmacist, parents, or guardian. Where appropriate, offer links to suitable resources. This may include internal wikilinks or external websites. Be extremely careful not to offer a diagnosis in this way. If the poster has identified their place of residence, contact information for local health professionals or hotlines may be provided.

[edit] Dealing with answers giving medical advice

Occasionally, someone may respond to a question in a way that could be interpreted as giving medical advice, even if the question itself does not directly solicit such. In those cases, it may be appropriate to only remove those specific answers.

  1. Verify that the answer appears to be giving medical advice as detailed above. There's no need to give the impression of hassling someone by unnecessarily removing their answers. (Responders, meanwhile, are encouraged to be very careful in handling medical questions if they've been cautioned about giving medical advice more than once.)
  2. If the answer does seem to offer medical advice, remove it, replacing it with a brief note explaining the reasons for the removal.
  3. Politely remind the responder that we cannot offer medical advice on Wikipedia, pointing them to these guidelines.

[edit] When in doubt

  • If a question arises as to whether or not medical advice was sought or given, any party (poster, responder, or third party) may post the material in question on the reference desk talk page for review and discussion.
  • If the consensus is that the given response constitutes medical advice, the response in question will be removed immediately. During this process, responders are strongly encouraged to suggest ways to rephrase answers (their own or others') to present useful information without offering a diagnosis or other medical advice.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links