Health Information, Wikipedia-style

The Medical School is taking a lead role in a global effort to create the most comprehensive and collaborative health and medical resource in the world. Modeled after Wikipedia, the highly successful online encyclopedia, Medpedia will launch at the end of 2008.

The ambitious Medpedia Project merges advances in information technology with the expertise of health professionals and organizations around the world to bring health care and medical information into the 21st century. The goal is to create a clearinghouse for medical information that cuts across disciplines, socio-economic status and geography to provide valuable health-related information to anyone, anywhere, at any time.

The University of Michigan Medical School, Harvard University Medical School, Stanford University School of Medicine and University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health are working together with other organizations, such as the American College of Physicians, to create the Internet-based learning tool. Gilbert S. Omenn, M.D., Ph.D., professor of molecular medicine and genetics, human genetics and internal medicine, is a member of Medpedia’s board of advisers, and Robert Lash, M.D., associate professor of internal medicine, is a key adviser to the project.

The National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also are involved.

“Medpedia is a great example of how Michigan can collaborate with our peer medical institutions to use the power of the Internet to disseminate medical information around the world,” Lash says. “We hope this project will revolutionize access to health information for the public, as well as for health care professionals and students.”

Unlike Wikipedia, which can be freely added to and edited by almost anyone, only rigorously vetted health professionals and organizations will be permitted to contribute content to Medpedia. Main topic pages will be written in language easily understood by lay users, while technical pages will provide more in-depth, clinical information intended for students, physicians, nurses and other health care professionals.

The Medpedia.com Web site is maintained by Medpedia Inc., part of Ooga Labs — a technology incubator in San Francisco — and runs on Mediawiki, open source software which runs many wikis including Wikipedia. Like Wikipedia, Medpedia’s content is freely licensable under the GNU Free Documentation License.

A wiki is a page or collection of Web pages designed to enable anyone to contribute or modify content, using a simplified markup language. Wikis are often used to create collaborative Web sites and to power community Web sites. “Wiki” is a Hawaiian word for “fast.”
—RICK KRUPINSKI

New Chair for Molecular and Integrative Physiology

On August 1, 2008, M. Bishr Omary, M.D., Ph.D., became chair of the Medical School’s Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology and the H. Marvin Pollard Professor of Gastroenterology. Before coming to U-M, Omary was a professor of internal medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine and associate director of Stanford’s Digestive Disease Center.

“Even with all of his impressive accomplishments,” says James O. Woolliscroft, M.D., dean and Lyle C. Roll Professor of Medicine, “I have been particularly struck by his engaging, outgoing personality and his dedication to mentoring junior faculty and students.”

Omary’s research focuses on the function and regulation of keratins in digestive epithelia and their association with disease. He values translational research and has been an advocate for collaborations between the NIH, research institutions and industry. Omary served as director of an NIH training grant in academic gastroenterology at Stanford from 1999-2005. He is a regular speaker at the annual Academic Skills Workshop of the American Gastroenterological Association, and received a teaching award from Stanford in 2005. He serves as associate editor for the journals Molecular Biology of the Cell and Gastroenterology.

The Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology dates back more than 125 years, making it one of the oldest departments of physiology in the U.S. The department works to understand the function of molecules, cells, tissues and organisms with an emphasis on their relation to human biology and medicine.

Says Omary, “I look forward to working to enhance departmental educational programs and existing collaborations with many areas of the University — including the Geriatrics Center, the Brehm Center for Type 1 Diabetes Research, the Gastrointestinal Peptide Research Center and the Center for Computational Medicine and Biology, among others.” —BS

The Dean Is In

Since starting his Office Hours program in early 2007, Dean Woolliscroft has met with approximately 125 faculty, staff and students who offer comments, suggestions and insights concerning the Medical School. Their input has led to a number of changes and innovations in the school.