Wikipedians and Translators Without Borders have been collaborating for more than two years in an effort to improve access to medical information. [1] Over this time we have improved more than 30 key medical articles in English and are working on translating them into around 60 languages. This effort has resulted in more than 3 million words of translated text. [2]
The work is having an impact. Wikipedia’s medical content is the single most read medical resource globally, [3] receiving about 5 billion page views in 2013 for around 180,000 articles across 286 languages. It is also often re-used by other sources including university textbooks by Boundless.com which reaches more than 3 million students, [4] Google, and many others. Additionally the Wikimedia Foundation through partnerships with cellphone companies has secured Wikipedia browsing without data charges for more than 500 million people in the developing world (currently rolling out in many regions with more carriers being added). [5]
Most of these efforts are accomplished entirely by volunteers. Volunteers who believe that all people deserve free and easy access to high quality health care information in the language of their choosing. The number of people currently working on these efforts are however small. To expand our work we need more people to join us who share our dream. For many aspects of the project there is no formal registration required. One can simply begin editing on Wikipedia.
If one is interested in translating from English to their native language they can contact enrique at proz dot com. Currently we are primarily looking for people to help in non European languages as in major languages much content already exists. Additionally we need people who can help add already translated article to Wikipedia. It requires a bit of time to figure out the Media Wiki markup but not too much. We are specifically looking for help adding articles in Arabic, Polish and Dutch right now.
Please let us know if you would be interested or wish to learn more.
James Heilman & Lori Thicke
MD, CCFP(EM), Wikipedian Founder and
President of Wiki Project Med Foundation Translators without Borders
References
James Heilman
MD, CCFP-EM, Wikipedian
The Wikipedia Open Textbook of Medicine
www.opentextbookofmedicine.com
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From December 2013 to March 2014, mPowering Frontline Health Workers is supporting an in-depth exploration here on the HIFA forum around the information and learning needs of Community health workers (CHWs), and how we can meet those needs more effectively and efficiently over the coming years. Further information: http://tinyurl.com/hifa97
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