What happened to @Medpedia? It's dead!

I've been following the Medpedia project for some time now. It appears that Medpedia is dead. Am I wrong? Did the site get hacked? Or, did it die a quiet death?

What happened to Medpedia? It's a project that had such potential, but perhaps they didn't have enough resources to sustain it.

Medpedia was a collaborative project launched on 17 February 2009. Its aim is to create an open access online medical wiki encyclopedia in association with Harvard Medical School, Stanford School of Medicine, Berkeley School of Public Health, University of Michigan Medical School, the United Kingdom's National Health Service (NHS) as well as other contributors.

Looks like @laikas has captured some information about the death of Medpedia.

Medpedia project #HCSM

The other night, I was on Twitter discussing #HCSM (Healthcare Communication & Social Media) and our discussion evolved into the topic of: reliable health information. How do patients know what to trust when they read something online?

This conversation reminded me of the Medpedia project. I admit that I haven't been a very active of the Medpedia project lately, but I hope to change that.

Are you familiar with the Medpedia project? 

The Medpedia Project is a long-term, worldwide project to evolve a new model for sharing and advancing knowledge about health, medicine and the body among medical professionals and the general public. This model is founded on providing a free online technology platform that is collaborative, interdisciplinary and transparent.

In association with Harvard Medical School, Stanford School of Medicine, Berkeley School of Public Health, University of Michigan Medical School and other leading global health organizations, Medpedia will be a commons for the gathering of the information and people critical to health care. Many organizations have united to support The Medpedia Project. 

To learn more, visit: http://www.medpedia.com

Does your doctor Twitter?

Does your doctor use Twitter? Does he/she even know what Twitter is? American Medical News has a story titled, "Twitter: What's the use? Early physician adopters say the social media site can help you promote your practice and communicate with colleagues." The story quotes a "Dr. Kim" but that's not me - it's Peter Beck Kim, MD (@doccottle), a family physician in Costa Mesa, Calif. I'm @DrJosephKim on Twitter.

Can Twitter actually promote your medical practice? How many doctors are using Twitter to communicate with their patients and to market their website? Twitter is a very powerful social media tool because it provides instant results. You can't say that about most blogs. The American Medical News story quotes data that the Nielsen Co. released in April which found that only about 40% of users were active a month after creating an account. Physicians are busy enough that most don't want to bother with social media unless some type of monetary incentive is provided (like market research surveys).

Among physicians, you have the early adopters who love technology and they are actively engaged in Web 2.0 technologies (ranging from blogs, RSS feeds, forums, wikis, and social networking tools like Twitter). If you're looking for such early adopters, look on Sermo and on Medpedia. That's where you're likely to find people who even understand the basics of social networking. Of course, you'll also find many physicians who work in the business side of healthcare - consulting, pharma, managed care, medical communications, and so on. These individuals appreciate the importance of networking for both personal and professional purposes.

Medpedia Medical Wiki

The Medpedia medical wiki project is now live and active. Of course, it's much more than a wiki. Let's see what type of participation we get on this site. Will this be medical social networking at its best?