Crowd vs. ExpertsWho to trust for health information?

Alexandra Carmichael, Mar 2009

I’m a panelist for the Great Debate

“Wiki vs. Expert”: What's the best approach to knowledge creation?

The Lineup:

Experts vs. Users

Slightly skewed?

Help!

OK, deep breath.

My Reaction:

I asked my 1300 / friends:

Who do you trust for health information?

Lots of replies and discussion from:

regular folks

patients

self-trackers

doctors

social media advocates

Theme #1: Who is an Expert?

@ePatientDave, health trackers

Experts Patients

Experts are not necessarily MDs

But not all patientsare experts

Theme #2: What kind of patients?

Julio Bonis Sanz, MD PhD

Chronic Acute

Patients have valuable expertise to advise orcomplement doctors

Patients don’t haveas much expertise,

rely more on doctors

Theme #3: Are statistics better than experts?

This book says YES!

Linear statistical models are better at

making predictions

Experts are good at defining measures

Theme #4: Can patients run their own clinical trials?

ALS Lithium study - patients self-tracking at PatientsLikeMe

So what’s the answer? Crowd or experts?

1. It depends.

2. Transparent collaboration is a start.

3. Deep breathing is always good. :)

Other themes, ideas, who-to-trust thoughts?

Write to me!

alexandra@curetogether.com

twitter: @accarmichael