Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Medicine/Archive 81

Links to their own website
We have an editor here at Targeted intra-operative radiotherapy who is adding links to their own website. And continues to add primary research. Thoughts. Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 18:52, 18 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Looks like self-promotion by a guy who claims to have developed this technique - although the first version of the article only mentions him twice, in the current version, edited by him, the majority of references are to his papers. Self-promo, although not the first one of a medical doctor that I see on WP. — kashmiri  TALK  19:19, 18 May 2016 (UTC)

NUCCA
"A pilot study[7] concludes that alignment of the atlas vertebra results in notable and sustained reduction in blood pressure. The methodology of that study has been criticized.[8]" See NUCCA. Both sources are unreliable, I think. QuackGuru ( talk ) 18:12, 18 May 2016 (UTC)
 * ?--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 20:16, 18 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Removed the primary source. Doc James  (talk · contribs · email) 05:38, 19 May 2016 (UTC)

External link being added to many bacteria articles
Hi folks, I was wondering about links to this database being added to numerous articles about bacteria. Here's one example:. The two editors adding the links, User:L.C.Reimer and User:AnnaVetci), appear to be authors of the paper describing the database: .  They seem to be promoting the website.  So far, they've added these links to over a thousand Wikipedia articles.  CatPath (talk) 16:55, 17 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Agree. There is a "mass rollback" ability but not sure how to get it to work. Doc James  (talk · contribs · email) 20:34, 17 May 2016 (UTC)
 * User:CatPath have removed the links in question. Doc James  (talk · contribs · email) 21:41, 17 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Would be good to check the value of this database. It is managed by DSMZ, and judging from their website they are a bona fide research institution in Germany. . Their data might actually be valuable enough to be included on Wikipedia, although I'd imagine Wikidata would be the place to go. — kashmiri  TALK  21:43, 17 May 2016 (UTC)
 * For what it's worth, there's still about 100 instances of this link on Wikipedia, many of them added by an IP editor a few weeks ago. - Aoidh (talk) 21:45, 17 May 2016 (UTC)
 * It is basically another database. Content belongs in wikidata. Import could be done. Doc James  (talk · contribs · email) 22:00, 17 May 2016 (UTC)
 * It can only be imported into Wikidata if the contents of the database aren't copyrighted. Wikidata requires public domain/CC-0 licensing.  WhatamIdoing (talk) 14:28, 19 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Hi, I am one of the two editors inserting all the links. We are researchers, working for a german non-commercial research institute DSMZ. We started this as a project to provide additional information for bacterial type strains (which are ~10,000), since many of these strains are poorly described. We are not able to improve thousands of wikipages, also the data of our database are complex and diverse and can not be incorporated into wikipedia. Though our links provide useful scientific data regarding various aspects e.g. taxonomy, morphology, physiology, growth conditions, media recipes, isolation source, molecular biology and so on. Before starting this, we looked up the guidelines and found for External links "Some acceptable links include those that contain further research that is accurate and on-topic, information that could not be added to the article for reasons such as copyright or amount of detail, or other meaningful, relevant content that is not suitable for inclusion in an article for reasons unrelated to its accuracy." So, our content is absolutely accurate and on-topic and the amount of detail is too high to incorporate. That's why we thought, this would be the right way to do it. By inserting those links we stumbled over a lot of links to other databases, (as for example to Encyclopedia of Life or to http://www.bacterio.net/) which also provide additional information as we do. So we felt confirmed in our doing. I really would appreciate if you rethink about the roll back, since we really offer high quality research data as additional information to the wikipedia users and we do not have any commercial interest or advantage. I am open for questions. L.C.Reimer (talk) 05:30, 18 May 2016 (UTC)
 * I really don't see what the issue is here. Inserting database links in articles seems completely fine.  We do it in every chembox, drugbox, and proteinbox/pbb on every page where those templates are transcluded anyway.  Seppi  333  (Insert 2¢) 05:38, 18 May 2016 (UTC)
 * We could likely do a bot import into Wikidata if there is consensus. Each of these bacteria has a Wikidata entry. Doc James  (talk · contribs · email) 05:48, 18 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Thanks for posting here User:L.C.Reimer. In general the editing community welcomes WP:BOLD efforts to improve the encyclopedia.  However, when engaging in a large-scale project like this, it always wise to at least give people a heads up, and even better to get consensus first.  This is discussed a bit in WP:CAUTIOUS.   Just doing it raises concerns about spamming and promotionalism as well as the quality of the data in the link (that is the concern, [User:Seppi333).


 * It just so happens that there is another editor who is doing a similar thing but more radical - basically rewriting articles about proteins based on a database maintained at the lab where he used to work; many other kinds of problems arose there. (being discussed here).


 * L.C.Reimer If would be great if you and your partner paused for a bit while we discuss what you are doing. Is that OK?


 * For folks who want to see what they are up to with this database, they published on the most recent iteration of the database. See, free fulltext (cited on their website here). Jytdog (talk) 05:51, 18 May 2016 (UTC)


 * Thank you for the answers. I agree, that we should have talked to someone before, but I haven't figured out how, so we thought it would be okay to just start that. Of course, we will stop and wait where this discussion ends! Hope you'll find a consensus and let me know if you have further questions.L.C.Reimer (talk) 05:57, 18 May 2016 (UTC)


 * I think there is a conflict of interest issue here. It would have been better if the authors first cleared this with WP:Microbiology.  Also it would have been better to implement this as a template with a link to a Imprint (database) stub explaining what the database is about. Another problem is that the database concerns bacterial strains, where as Wikipedia has very few articles on strains.  Most of the links were added to bacteria species articles, hence these links in general appear over specialized. Boghog (talk) 06:02, 18 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Though our database is based on strain-linked information, we only linked type strains which are "representives" of a speciesL.C.Reimer (talk) 06:21, 18 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Boghog that makes tons of sense, that the discussion should happen at that WikiProject rather than here. Would you mind starting the discussion there, linking back here so folks there have this context?  thx Jytdog (talk) 06:17, 18 May 2016 (UTC)
 * In my experience WP:Microbiology is as dead as a doornail, but there may be some active editors around. Or try the biology WPr. Johnbod (talk) 16:05, 18 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Please keep an eye on the WP:Micro discussion and feel free to chime in again to help reach some kind of meaningful consensus. Thanks! Ajpolino (talk) 01:02, 19 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Notified them here  Doc James  (talk · contribs · email) 05:41, 19 May 2016 (UTC)
 * L.C.Reimer, are you familiar with our sister project, Wikispecies? WhatamIdoing (talk) 14:28, 19 May 2016 (UTC)

Brand names at Metoclopramide article
Input would be helpful at Talk:Metoclopramide. Thanks. Jytdog (talk) 20:46, 15 May 2016 (UTC)

give opinion(gave mine)--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 22:03, 15 May 2016 (UTC)

I have questions about brand names being deleted from any/ and ALL prescription drug articles, not just this one. Thank-you for any help making this clear. I'm having trouble understanding why brand names should be deleted from these highly-regulated products, or if there is a reason why they should be. TeeVeeed (talk) 22:57, 15 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Might be good to have a rfc around this issue. My position is that one or two brandnames should be in the lead. Maybe three in the infobox and others can go in the society and culture section if people so choose to put them there and reference it. Doc James  (talk · contribs · email) 23:04, 15 May 2016 (UTC)
 * I don't see any need for an RFC. MEDMOS and PHARMOS both say that brand names ought to be included in the article, ideally as a ===Brand names=== subsection under ==Society and culture== when there are more than a couple.  Also, they say that the original brand name ought to be in bold-face type in the lead, along with the name of the original manufacturer.  We just need more people to be aware of the existing advice (and also to be aware that the advice isn't an absolute requirement.  There are some good reasons to vary the standard approach on occasion [e.g., when different forms have different trade names, then you might as well give the brand names with the forms, for concision; also, there's no need for a whole section on brand names if there's only a couple of brand names], and some GA articles on drugs are sensibly adjusting the suggested sections to better fit each case).  WhatamIdoing (talk) 05:06, 16 May 2016 (UTC)
 * No the two MOS are not in sync. WP:PHARM says list them all but MEDMOS advises away where it explicitly says "Try to avoid cloning drug formularies such as the BNF and online resources like RxList and Drugs.com.".  There is no encyclopedic value to a CATALOG of drug names that you can find at dozens of sites.  I generally list the originator name and then "there are many brands available worldwide" and cite the laundry list at drugs.com.  I often do that in the context of writing a history section that talks about who discovered it when and where, and the series of relationships that were struck to bring the drug to market, and when it went generic.  I most recently did that a couple of days ago when i completely revised the Trospium chloride article; the history took a few hours to work out and I am still not clear on the relationship between the 2 German companies.  There was also some interesting litigation around trademarks on names that I added content on here: Trospium_chloride.  There is no encyclopedic value to a LAUNDRYLIST of names.  I am baffled that people are claiming there is and no one has articulated any encyclopedic value, nor why we should contravene the policy', WP:NOTCATALOG.   Jytdog (talk) 06:25, 16 May 2016 (UTC)
 * That's not what we actually meant when we said to avoid cloning drug formularies. :-/  A drug formulary tells you chemical and clinical information about the drug, e.g., side effects and contraindications.  It does not (traditionally) tell you business information, such as the variety of trademarks or manufacturers (although online ones probably do, to help with search engine optimization).
 * IMO the main value in that "laundry list" of names is helping people figure out if they're at the right page. Every one of those names should have a redirect that points to the article, and it is standard practice to mention terms that redirect to a page (except for trivial variations).  WhatamIdoing (talk) 13:22, 16 May 2016 (UTC)
 * The two sources cited in the MEDMOS, RxList and drugs.com both list all the tradenames, so I have no idea what you are talking about. People can figure out if they are at the right article but clicking on the link to a reference that has the laundry list. Now you seem to be saying that we should be in the business of SEO, and that Wikipedia editors should waste their time copying lists of drug brand names into Wikipedia and then maintaining those laundrylists when people spam unsourced trademark-sounding names into the list, which happens all the time. You are not dealing with that.  You are just armchair quarterbacking and I have no idea what is at stake for you in this discussion.  Jytdog (talk) 15:17, 16 May 2016 (UTC)
 * What's at stake? How about a decent encyclopedia article that contains information beyond the medical POV?  Maybe we could even getting some shared agreement of what PHARMOS and MEDMOS mean, when they (both of them) say that there should normally be a subsection called ===Brand names===, so that we can stop having disputes between editors who read the advice and added this business-related information, and editors who blank their efforts as spam.
 * Back on the original point: a drug formulary is a list of ingredients and other information about how to make a drug.  See these two examples from a traditional drug formulary.  The lists ingredients, dosing, and sometimes side effects.  It does not list any brand names.  Now, it's possible that modern online drug formularies list brand names for SEO purposes (NB, I didn't say that Wikipedia should do SEO efforts; instead, I said that Drugs.com might be doing that).  However, traditional drug formularies didn't include that information.  MEDMOS gives a specific example on the subject of how not to be like a drug formulary, and that example is about creating laundry lists of side effects (=a component of traditional drug formularies).  MEDMOS doesn't say anything agains listing business information, nor about removing brand names (which ought to redirect to that article).  WhatamIdoing (talk) 15:23, 19 May 2016 (UTC)

Date of Med talks at Wikimania moved
The medical day at Wikimania has moved from Jun 22nd to Jun 23rd.

Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 17:25, 19 May 2016 (UTC)

Alcohol for lice
Further comments appreciated here Doc James  (talk · contribs · email) 06:00, 19 May 2016 (UTC)


 * give opinion(gave mine)--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 20:02, 19 May 2016 (UTC)

Several new medical articles could use some review
Several new medical articles created by one user could use review by experienced editors:
 * Skin-to-Skin Sexually Transmitted Diseases and Infections
 * Contact-to-Contact Sexually Transmitted Diseases and Infections

There may be COI issues with these articles because the same editor has created several highly promotional articles about related businesses/products: Biiosmart (currently nominated for speedy deletion), Bioniix (also at speedy deletion), and Intelligent Molecular Therapeutics. Deli nk (talk) 12:44, 20 May 2016 (UTC)
 * I speedied both of them for duplicating each other and our Sexually transmitted diseases article. Jytdog (talk) 13:01, 20 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Thanks for bringing this, User:Deli nk. All gone. Jytdog (talk) 16:07, 20 May 2016 (UTC)

RfC: Wikidata in infoboxes, opt-in or opt-out?
There is currently an RfC at Village_pump_(policy) which has the potential to have a major impact on how we use templates. The new Template:Infobox medical condition(new) is a ß-version displaying a number of great uses of Wikidata for diseases and medical conditions — see for example Gout. Changing policy of Wikidata items to opt-in would undermine the entire venture and lose a potential source of quality data for article infoboxes.

Please comment. Carl Fredik  💌 📧 18:05, 16 May 2016 (UTC)
 * give opinion(gave mine)--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 19:00, 16 May 2016 (UTC)
 * CFCF I asked this over at the RfC but how would "opt-in" prevent using WikiData in infoboxes like you used it at gout? Jytdog (talk) 21:26, 16 May 2016 (UTC)
 * We are "opt-out" right now. I am not exactly sure what that means. What difference will opt-in make? Doc James  (talk · contribs · email) 22:54, 16 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Am trying to figure that out. From what I can tell with "opt in" you would need to add some kind of flag to the infobox (or maybe to each field?) to allow WikiData in.   I think that is better, based on the little I know.  WikiData gets manipulated by SEO folks all the time (there are SEOs who market themselves as doing that for clients), there is all kinds of unsourced data in it from what I gather, and i have no idea how well or how carefully curated it is.  Also changes it makes to the actual infobox should show up in the history and therefore in watchlists, and they don't now. Jytdog (talk) 23:03, 16 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Yes thanks, that makes sense.
 * At least for now I agree "opt in" makes sense. Doc James  (talk · contribs · email) 23:08, 16 May 2016 (UTC)
 * The statement "WikiData gets manipulated by SEO folks all the time" is misleading. While there is no question that, like any other entity on the internet, SEO people do look at and try to leverage Wikidata, it is not a good argument against using it in the context of  building infoboxes on Wikipedia.  A lot more SEO energy goes into manipulating Wikipedia itself and, because its text and not just data, this manipulation can be much more subtle.  (e.g. See http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/08/wikipedia-editors-for-pay/393926/ ).  The other argument about unsourced statements is also misleading.  Yes, there are many unsourced statements on Wikidata - the great majority of these were taken directly from Wikipedia hence its a little backwards to suggest that Wikipedia text is by default more reliable.  That aside, there is no reason that unsourced statements need to appear in any infoboxes.  Infobox code can be used to check what references exist on claims and make sure they match the infobox creator's criteria for inclusion before being rendered.  --Benjamin Good (talk) 16:47, 20 May 2016 (UTC)
 * User:I9606 My comment was not misleading; it is an absolutely valid concern. What would address it, would be an explanation of what efforts are made in WikiData to patrol and ensure that changes made to WikiData are neutral and well-sourced.  We spend a lot of effort here at WP:MED just maintaining articles; we are acutely aware of efforts to create and manipulate WP articles for promotion.  So please address the concern instead of spinning away from it.   If you cannot, then I for one will just need to oppose opt-out. Jytdog (talk) 17:05, 20 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Wouldn't it depend upon the type of data? For example, I'm not sure how a GeneReviews id number could be non-neutral, and it's pretty much self-sourcing (the id number is all you need to build a URL to the entry in the database [we're doing that right now in infoboxes]).  WhatamIdoing (talk) 20:50, 20 May 2016 (UTC)

Bot implementing wiki-data driven infobox for genes
See this diff which was made by a bot, User:ProteinBoxBot. Jytdog (talk) 03:48, 20 May 2016 (UTC)

Assistance needed
Some expert assistance would be appreciated at Nigella sativa. I have attempted to discuss recent additions/reversions but with no success at getting the user involved to respond other than with personal abuse (which  has retracted). Peter coxhead (talk) 21:12, 21 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Hyperforin is OK they are just a bit excitable. :) Jytdog (talk) 21:13, 21 May 2016 (UTC)


 * Some of the above statements by Peter coxhead are false. First of all, the sentences added to the article were adequately sourced using multiple published review references, yet they were repeatedly reverted because some editors simply can't accept that a natural substance can actually have meaningful biological effects. This has already been discussed by me on the Talk page of the article. Moreover, a false argument was made in the revert summary by user Zefr, claiming that the added citation was a primary source, even though it was not. If it helps, there are numerous other reviews for Nigella found on PubMed that can be added, but this shouldn't be necessary at all. --Hyperforin (talk) 21:19, 21 May 2016 (UTC)
 * it seems to be the Preliminary human research that's the source of the problem, these two refs however only offer abstracts,(no access) making it difficult to assess their validity in regards to the text--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 21:29, 21 May 2016 (UTC)
 * FWIW, Sci-hub and Google Scholar Button are your friends. In any event, excerpts/quotes were included in the references within the article to assist with verification, although the journal articles certainly contain additional useful text beyond what was quoted. --Hyperforin (talk) 21:36, 21 May 2016 (UTC)
 * I deeply resent the assertion made by that I "simply can't accept that a natural substance can actually have meaningful biological effects". This would be a stupid view to hold. I simply consider that the reviews do not show enough to make the information worth including. (I do have full access to the two papers  used.) The more important point is that whether I am right or wrong, and of course I may be wrong, Hyperforin shouldn't keep re-adding material that is under discussion. Peter coxhead (talk) 21:42, 21 May 2016 (UTC)

Noncompaction cardiomyopathy
the above article could use some help, if any editor has time, thank you--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 10:36, 22 May 2016 (UTC)

Traffic reporting
I started an essay or guide at meta called meta:Traffic reporting.

Consider any category, like for example, Translation Task Force's Category:RTT which contains 310 medical articles queued for translation.

Put that category and a date range into this tool.
 * Massviews Analysis tool

The output is data about the pageview traffic to all of those pages in that date range. Example with category RTT for March 2016 - 23 million views in that month for English, and reports on other languages are available by request through the drop down language menu.

Thanks to for making this.

Any Wikipedia contributor who has a partnership with organizations knows that organizations continually ask, "How many people read Wikipedia articles in our field of interest?" For the first time ever, there is a quick and easy way to answer that question.  Blue Rasberry  (talk)  19:37, 20 May 2016 (UTC)
 * great!--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 22:03, 20 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Very similar to this tool . The benefit of this one is that one can also include subpages.
 * I am looking for a tool that will give monthly pageviews (mobile and desktop) for all of WPMED. Does anyone know of one? Doc James  (talk · contribs · email) 03:32, 21 May 2016 (UTC)
 * I do not.  Blue Rasberry   (talk)  13:13, 21 May 2016 (UTC)
 * When you need data on thousands of pages, it's better that we do a special-request one-time run. Massviews is capped at 500 pages because querying much more than that through the API is either going to leave you with incomplete data, or you'll have to wait a considerably long time -- for the entire WP:MED project perhaps an hour or more. Tag on mobile vs desktop views and you're doubling the execution time! Since you want monthly data, perhaps we could instead create a service to suit this need, so that it is ran only once per month. How does that sound? &mdash; MusikAnimal  talk  17:35, 21 May 2016 (UTC)
 * That would be great User:MusikAnimal. User:Ladsgroup might be working on something but not sure were he is at. Doc James  (talk · contribs · email) 03:53, 22 May 2016 (UTC)
 * I already made an issue in the github repository . I also talked with Dan to see what we can do on pageview API when we are trying to get page view for lots of pages. It seems we need to make parallel requests and there is no support for batch requests yet. Building a table and storing data monthly was my idea since the beginning but it has its own complications. Ladsgroupoverleg 15:24, 22 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Would be cool if we could get this data for Wikimania and if we could run it back in time :-) Doc James  (talk · contribs · email) 17:34, 22 May 2016 (UTC)

Help
Hi. I could really use some help with managing an expert review of Parkinson's disease.

I need someone with medical or scientific literacy and access to an online medical library to find strong recent sources that support some of the changes my reviewers are recommending. In the areas of their individual expertise they have no problem identifying the best sources but when they notice errors outside their specific fields, they struggle. I have searched the freely available literature and found a lot but now I need the help of someone with paywall access. The review is basically complete but we can't bring it to the talk page without bringing sources too.

I've learned a lot from this experience, and look forward to sharing that once we're done. --Anthonyhcole (talk · contribs · email) 11:00, 22 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Happy to help, time permitting. Where are the questions to be addressed? &mdash; soupvector (talk) 13:32, 22 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Seeing this section my guess is that you might have a Word file with diffs in Track Changes. Feel free to email me and I can work readily with that. &mdash; soupvector (talk) 13:46, 22 May 2016 (UTC)
 * That's great. Thank you soupvector. (Sorry, I should have pointed out I was going to bed after leaving the above.) I've moved the review from the shared Word document to my sandbox (trying to get them onwiki - dragging horses to water, actually). In the left column I've pasted all paragraphs that contain proposed changes, and the relevant comments/discussions are in the adjacent right-hand column. I've added your name and initials (SV) to the introduction. Please add sources (and a relevant quote, preferably) to the right-hand column and initial your comment.


 * Would you like me to distil it down to a list of unsupported proposed changes? Happy to do that if it makes it easier, though I'd appreciate your oversight of the whole review, too, if it interests you and you have the time. --Anthonyhcole (talk · contribs · email) 02:17, 23 May 2016 (UTC)
 * This looks fine - thanks - I'll have more context looking over the whole review. Okay if this takes me a few days to complete? &mdash; soupvector (talk) 02:23, 23 May 2016 (UTC)
 * There is no deadline, soupvector. Do it when it feels like fun. --Anthonyhcole (talk · contribs · email) 03:09, 23 May 2016 (UTC)

Rudy's List of Archaic Medical Terms
Editors of medical articles might benefit from this website, mentioned at WP:RD/S at 15:34, 22 May 2016 (UTC). —Wavelength (talk) 21:20, 22 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Rudy's List of Archaic Medical Terms
 * useful link, thank you Wavelength--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 10:28, 23 May 2016 (UTC)

Can freely licensed videos from institutions include copyrighted logos in end credits?

 * File:American Chemical Society - What Chemists Do - Nathan Allen.webm

The American Chemical Society has applied a free license to a video. I expect that in the future more organizations will consider sharing videos. It is fairly common for videos to include credits somewhere. It is also common for online video for the credit to be in the form of a logo, and perhaps a copyrighted logo.

As the Wikipedia community negotiates these kinds of institutional partnerships and gets video donations, are credits acceptable in videos? What about the inclusion of copyrighted logos? I started a discussion on Commons. Anyone may comment either here or there.
 * Commons:Commons:Village_pump/Copyright

I am presenting this to WikiProject Medicine because this particular video talks about a partnership between science organizations and another website called Reddit. A collaborator and I have noted this science outreach project here several times in the past -
 * archive 56
 * archive 63
 * archive 68

I continue to be impressed by that reddit project's ability to recruit leading health thinkers to have discussions with the general public.
 * Francis Collins, director of NIH, in discussion on April 25, 2016

In general, I wish Wikipedia could be more clear on the boundaries for how organizations can share content on Wikipedia. Sorting out allowance for credits is a basic issue on which we ought to be clear.  Blue Rasberry  (talk)  16:58, 11 May 2016 (UTC)
 * there is certainly a lot to gain, however its important not to allow too much time for "logos"...IMO--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 10:53, 12 May 2016 (UTC)
 * If they are released under an open license, they can be re edited to remove parts of the logo if the logo is too long. Hopefully most will be reasonable if it is simply discussed. Doc James  (talk · contribs · email) 20:19, 13 May 2016 (UTC)
 * yes that would work--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 10:31, 23 May 2016 (UTC)

Health effects of eating breakfast
Is anyone interested in reviewing Breakfast? This morning I read this meta-analysis, which appears pretty thorough: Breakfast doesn't reflect this analysis at all. I also noticed that the section relies on a couple of MEDRS-questionable sources, and that its neutrality was questioned on article talk. --Dr. Fleischman (talk) 17:50, 23 May 2016 (UTC)
 * The community at WikiProject Breakfast probably outranks this forum on matters related to breakfasts. I messaged them requesting that they comment here and provide insight from their field of expertise.  Blue Rasberry   (talk)  19:22, 23 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Thanks, good thought! On the other hand that group is probably less experienced with interpreting medical sources and applying MEDRS. --Dr. Fleischman (talk) 19:45, 23 May 2016 (UTC)
 * I edited partially, added content and another reference, and changed the section banner for citation improvement. The article by Brown et al., "Belief beyond the evidence..." is not a study in itself but rather a meta-analysis to position a debate on "research lacking probative value" and "biased research reporting" where skipping breakfast was related for or against as a factor in obesity onset. I don't think the Brown study warrants it being used in the Breakfast article as it is convoluted and potentially confusing for the lay user per WP:NOTJOURNAL. The Carroll article in today's NY Times was a good lay summary though. --Zefr (talk) 20:31, 23 May 2016 (UTC)

FYI
Articles for deletion/Information-theoretic death Jytdog (talk) 14:21, 23 May 2016 (UTC)

give opinion(gave mine)--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 22:00, 23 May 2016 (UTC)

WP:Categories for discussion/Log/2016 May 22
People at this project might be interested in this discussion. —PermStrump ( talk )  22:58, 23 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Not my area of interest but we do have List of people with epilepsy as an FA and this seems to be an overhead category for this. We have a lot of "List of people with X articles" Doc James  (talk · contribs · email) 23:14, 23 May 2016 (UTC)
 * This category has existed since 2006 and only has 3 things in it, two of which don't really fit the description and there's also a category with a more grammatically correct title: Category:Retrospective diagnosis, which seems to be what this other category was aiming for. —PermStrump  ( talk )  00:04, 24 May 2016 (UTC)
 * And we have Category:Lists_of_people_by_physical_attribute Doc James  (talk · contribs · email) 00:25, 24 May 2016 (UTC)

Plumpy'nut
hm. Jytdog (talk) 01:10, 24 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Have been watching this product and article for a few years. We won't see MEDRS-style sourcing behind it because this is a therapeutic food pressed into rapid distribution to meet an urgent malnutrition need, i.e., no significant clinical research has been done on it, but the rapid positive results in helping malnourished children to recover are more than enough evidence. It has an appealing taste (I enjoyed a packet) designed to be nutrient-rich in a long-shelf life, heat- and moisture-stable format that serves starving children in some of the world's poorest countries. Press coverage here and here. Supported by UNICEF. --Zefr (talk) 01:39, 24 May 2016 (UTC)
 * The United Nations is a reliable source. Doc James  (talk · contribs · email) 08:47, 24 May 2016 (UTC)

Mention of bipolar disorder in biography articles
Opinions are needed on the following matter: Wikipedia talk:Biographies of living persons. A WP:Permalink for it is here. Flyer22 Reborn (talk) 04:03, 25 May 2016 (UTC)


 * please give opinion(gave mine)--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 12:49, 25 May 2016 (UTC)

We need better health images — an IEG project!
I've done a whole lot of work with images, from adding Sobotta's atlas of Anatomy to Wikipedia, working with X-rays, and contacting different organizations about errata concerning their images and uploading their works. I've also previously taken part in two rounds of IEGs for the Medical Translation Project. I want to tie these two together, focusing on getting images and videos out to a wider audience — both in English and in other Languages. Please take a look at the IEG I've drafted, all the details aren't finalized — but the focus is getting more image through collaborations guides on how to produce acquire images for Wikipedia!

If you feel this is worthwhile feel free to endorse or comment on the proposal — all your ideas are appreciated, and as the project isn't set in stone I will also respond to and criticism about what I plan on doing and what I plan on improving. Check it out here
 * Note: The page may see some substantial updating in the coming days

Best, CFCF   💌 📧 21:53, 12 April 2016 (UTC)
 * More "heat maps" would be great. We have a new tool for making these. Doc James  (talk · contribs · email) 19:10, 13 April 2016 (UTC)


 * Gunnmap is a free tool that can create heat-maps based off country data (all under a compatible license). There are also a number of other projects, and getting these to work within collaborations would be really useful, yes. Are those the tools you are referring to? CFCF   💌 📧 08:19, 14 April 2016 (UTC)
 * great idea, (heat-maps look good)--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 10:30, 24 April 2016 (UTC)
 * May be an interesting opportunity to work with Figure_1- they might welcome a partnership opportunity. Their images are thoroughly anonymized and fairly comprehensive. Their ToS would appear to grant them at least in principle the ability to CC-BY license the images that their users upload. Richardjames444 (talk) 16:11, 30 April 2016 (UTC)
 * That definitely sounds interesting — have you been in touch with them before, do you know if they are easy to reach out to?  Carl Fredik   💌 📧 14:49, 9 May 2016 (UTC)
 * I have corresponded and spoken with their Community Management Associate on another relationship-building project they recently launched, and a couple of other matters. I think they're still small enough to be responsive and have been open to conversations. I would be happy to sound them out- but not sure of the wiki-process needed to approve such a thing. Richardjames444 (talk) 13:43, 11 May 2016 (UTC)
 * User:Ocaasi can probably point you in the direction of any relevant wiki-processes. WhatamIdoing (talk) 12:47, 12 May 2016 (UTC)
 * I will Be Bold and get in touch with them to see if they'll even consider the notion.Richardjames444 (talk) 19:16, 13 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Since I was in Toronto for the past few days, I set up a meeting with their Medical Director to broach the subject in person. She had not heard of this project, and I am going to follow up with her since she did seem to have a genuine interest and to sense an alignment in goals. Whether or not this will result in anything for this particular need, or any other, remains to be seen. However, Figure1 has tremendous reach amongst clinicians and if they would collaborate in any way, it might attract broader interest and participation. Also, Figure1's HQ was like a scene from a Hollywood movie about a startup: 20-somethings riding hoverboards on walking desks whilst simultaneously hacking PHP and playing table tennis. I'll report back as this unfolds- please let me know where there is the potential for over-reach!Richardjames444 (talk) 16:07, 19 May 2016 (UTC)
 * , that is great, and if they are willing to work with us it could have a major impact - both for us, and for them as it would get their content out there and viewed on a massive scale. Feel free to mail me and include me in the discussions, I just want you to know that this project isn't started yet, it would start in July. If you're willing to sign to endorse or to suggest yourself as a volunteer you can still go to the project page on meta and do so. Carl Fredik   💌 📧 15:04, 25 May 2016 (UTC)

Chemical imbalance
What do other people think about this title and the article in general? It's about the hypothesis that chemical imbalances cause depression. It seems like this article is turning this into a straw-nature vs nurture debate. There's also a bit of big pharma conspiracy theory. To the best of my knowledge, the mainstream view is that depression, like all mental illness, is caused by a combination of biopsychosocial factors. It's my understanding that a lot of psychiatrists no longer love the phrase "chemical imbalance" because it's an inaccurate analogy as to why the body's natural level of serotonin isn't working effectively, not that they reject the idea that neurotransmitters and serotonin are involved. My questions for others are: (1) Does it seem like this article is supposed to be about (a) neurological hypotheses for the cause of depression in general or (b) is it actually about the acceptance, or lack there of, of the phrase "chemical imbalance"? (2) If it's option A, is this the best title for the topic and should it be merged with Biology of depression? —PermStrump ( talk )  22:46, 20 May 2016 (UTC)
 * I don't have a direct answer, but I thought these were particularly germane: and . There are many like this - gleaning scientific consensus will be important to responding to your questions. &mdash; soupvector (talk) 05:47, 21 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Seems like it should just be redirected to monoamine hypothesis. Jytdog (talk) 09:02, 21 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Better than a freestanding article, but I'm not sure there should be anything at this title, even a redirect. Although it's most commonly used in reference to depression, it's easy to find references to many other mental illnesses, and the phrase "chemical imbalance" in isolation could mean all sorts of things. Opabinia regalis (talk) 09:16, 21 May 2016 (UTC)
 * What do you suggest? Jytdog (talk) 09:19, 21 May 2016 (UTC)
 * I don't know, is the history actually worth keeping? Maybe put it somewhere like chemical imbalance theory of depression? Opabinia regalis (talk) 09:33, 21 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Those articles were really interesting to read, even just for personal reading. What search terms did you use? I don't know if I'm following the options you guys are talking about. What are you suggesting happens if someone searches "chemical imbalance"? A dab page with articles like Causes of mental disorders and Biology of depression, etc. or just nothing? Where does "chemical imbalance theory of depression" fit in? I don't know if I'm still allowed to say I'm new, but so far when people have brought up redirecting things during AFDs, etc, I've mainly paid attention to the content parts of the argument and skimmed the bits where people are talking about the actual mechanics redirecting things, but since I brought this one up, I suppose I should make it my business to make sense of the lingo. :)  —PermStrump  ( talk )  18:34, 21 May 2016 (UTC)
 * I don't know if I'm still allowed to say I'm new — since you were clearly not new from the moment your account was created last September, no, you are not allowed to claim newness. I mean, this was your 10th edit on your 2nd day. You must think we're all idiots. Ratel (talk) 21:47, 21 May 2016 (UTC)
 * I'm glad you enjoyed those. I sometimes do tricksy things in Pubmed, but in this case my search was very simple: "chemical imbalance AND depression" &mdash; soupvector (talk) 03:14, 22 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Jytdog turned the title chemical imbalance into a redirect to Biology of depression (also the target of monoamine hypothesis). I agree with him that there shouldn't be an article with the title "chemical imbalance", but think the term is too general to redirect to something specifically about depression. Skimming the Google results shows the term in use to describe anxiety, bipolar disorder, ADHD, and schizophrenia, among other more general descriptive uses. (Strictly speaking, any metabolic abnormality would fit the description.) I suggested that the page history of chemical imbalance be moved to the longer term chemical imbalance theory of depression or something similar, which would turn up as a suggested item in the drop-down as you type in the search box. I imagine the search results page would look similar to the current status.
 * Incidentally, I just noticed we also have Chemical imbalance (mental health), which redirects to biopsychiatry controversy, which is another article that could use some attention. Opabinia regalis (talk) 03:22, 22 May 2016 (UTC)
 * thanks for the explanation! Your suggestion of moving the page history to "Chemical imbalance theory of depression" makes sense to me. I think you're right that people commonly say "chemical imbalance" to refer to things other than depression, so it wouldn't be obvious to most people that that's what they'd find in the page history of "Chemical imbalance". I'll take a look at biopsychiatry controversy. I'm cringing at what I can already guess I'll find there.
 * since you're being such a detective, I assume you noticed that my account was created in September, but I didn't make my first edit until late November. Maybe I spent some of that time reading about how to edit wikipedia, so I wouldn't screw the whole thing up (my main fear at the time) and maybe by the time I made my first edit, I knew a little bit about a little bit. But anyway, I meant "I don't know if I'm still allowed to say I'm new" in a tongue-in-cheek sort of way because I was asking a noob question. I'm keeping a list of all of the false accusations you make against me, so keep 'em coming. —PermStrump  ( talk )  03:56, 22 May 2016 (UTC)
 * It's not just my opinion that you were never a noob, but also that of a senior sysop (who shall remain forever nameless). You're keeping a list? I'm also keeping track of you. Ratel (talk) 05:03, 22 May 2016 (UTC)
 * This part of the conversation makes me sad, and I suspect that it's not making anyone more interested in editing or collaborating. Please don't post comments like this here.  WhatamIdoing (talk) 20:54, 22 May 2016 (UTC)

I'd be OK with it moving to Chemical imbalance theory of mental illness. An article outlining the various instances (e.g., schizophrenia, depression, others?) of that hypothesis would be useful, in my opinion. --Anthonyhcole (talk · contribs · email) 12:16, 22 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Am with User:Anthonyhcole on this one. The topic is broader than just depression. Doc James  (talk · contribs · email) 17:33, 22 May 2016 (UTC)

"depression, like all mental illness, is caused by a combination of biopsychosocial factors"

This is probably true, except when the depression is caused entirely by endocrine problems, failing livers, etc. But perhaps they solve that problem by declaring all of those forms of depression to be non-mental-illness depressions. WhatamIdoing (talk) 20:54, 22 May 2016 (UTC)
 * I wasn't saying I think that or trying to debate if it's true. I was only saying I thought that the biopsychosocial perspective was the predominant mainstream view when talking about the cause of depression as a whole. —PermStrump  ( talk )  02:23, 23 May 2016 (UTC)
 * This particular article focused exclusively on depression and was really poorly written, nothing worth saving, so the question was where to move the page history. What you guys are talking about would mean starting a whole new article from scratch, which you're welcome to do... but I don't think that's what you meant. —PermStrump  ( talk )  02:30, 23 May 2016 (UTC)
 * The article devotes roughly equal space to depression and schizophrenia, and, though all writing can be improved, I don't agree this is "really poorly written". As User:Opabinia regalis suggests above, there may be other syndromes that this theoretical model has been applied to, and they can (if they exist) be added over time by interested readers and editors. --Anthonyhcole (talk · contribs · email) 02:45, 23 May 2016 (UTC)
 * I feel like I'm going crazy. I could have sworn it was specifically about depression! I can't imagine what I was thikning when I said that in my OP. It's gone from my memory now. —PermStrump  ( talk )  02:49, 23 May 2016 (UTC)
 * But there is already this article Causes of mental illness that could use work. —PermStrump  ( talk )  02:53, 23 May 2016 (UTC)

I'm sort of late to this discussion, but I figured I'd just drop this here since this came up on my talk page at one point. The more current "monoamine hypothesis" of depression is described below.

(Note: "target neurons of monoamines" refers to the postsynaptic neuron in a monoamine pathway)

The original monoamine hypothesis basically focused entirely on the level of the synaptic cleft - the area between 2 neurons. The more recent version (which reflects the underlined theory in the citation above) posits that antidepressant efficacy arises from the changes that they induce inside the postsynaptic neuron following chronic exposure, much like how addictive drugs induce a state of addiction following chronic exposure.  Seppi  333  (Insert 2¢) 19:49, 25 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Thanks for posting this, Seppi. I thought it was really interesting.  WhatamIdoing (talk) 02:48, 26 May 2016 (UTC)

Mazumdar et al.
This Mazumdar et al. reference has been added to a few articles recently, in particular this new article called Primary care service area. Thoughts? —PermStrump ( talk )  06:08, 26 May 2016 (UTC)
 * maybe coincidence? --Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 10:39, 26 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Isn't researchgate.com blacklisted? Carl Fredik   💌 📧 12:03, 26 May 2016 (UTC)
 * good point--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 13:02, 26 May 2016 (UTC)
 * I didn't know that about researchgate.com, but I'm glad to hear it. Not because of this, just in general. —PermStrump  ( talk )  15:31, 26 May 2016 (UTC)

Contraindications
Every FDA label that I have ever read has listed a known hypersensitivity to the drug itself or any of the excipients in a drug as a contraindication. Sometimes it's literally the only contraindication for a drug, e.g., nitazoxanide (brand: Alinia).

So, should I do this even though I probably can't cite this exact statement? I normally wouldn't care to add a statement like this to an article on a biologically active compound which isn't an FDA-approved prescription drug, but I intend to improve this article to FA status and figured it should conform to the MOS. I can probably find a source which states (in generality) that drugs which one has a known hypersensitivity to are contraindicated in that individual, but would that suffice as a citation in this specific case, or would that be WP:OR?  Seppi  333  (Insert 2¢) 20:44, 26 May 2016 (UTC)
 * if you intend to improve it to FA, (IMO)I would find a ref that states "in general...."--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 22:11, 26 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Sorry, I should clarify. I know it needs to be cited; the question is would citing the statement in generality suffice ( = the statement is not WP:OR if cited in generality) or should the statement/section be deleted ( = the statement is WP:OR if cited in generality)?  IMO, it seems obvious that a hypersensitivity reaction is a drug contraindication, so I'm fairly confident that I can find a ref supporting a general statement about drug contraindications and hypersensitivity reactions fairly easily.  Seppi  333  (Insert 2¢) 00:46, 27 May 2016 (UTC)
 * the statement would not be WP:OR...IMO--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 01:02, 27 May 2016 (UTC)
 * I think it would be better to leave that kind of statement out entirely, in all articles. "Don't take X if you're allergic to X itself" is obvious, and requiring that tends to mean stuffing articles full of trivia.  It'd be better to adjust the suggested(!) sections in the MOS than to have a section with essentially meaningless information. WhatamIdoing (talk) 02:54, 27 May 2016 (UTC)
 * That sounds reasonable. In any event, while looking at regulatory guidelines I was surprised by the laxness of the FDA guidance on hypersensitivity contraindications. It doesn't even mention excipients and suggests not mentioning hypersensitivity reactions at all when there are no reported cases of a reaction to the active compound alone.  The EU's guideline is much stricter: Hypersensitivity to the active substance or to any of the excipients or residues from the manufacturing process should be included, as well as any contraindication arising from the presence of certain excipients (see Guideline on excipients in the label and package leaflet of medicinal products for Human Use).   Seppi  333  (Insert 2¢) 03:33, 27 May 2016 (UTC)

Juvenile degenerative disc disease
Hello all. Saw reference to juvenile degenerative disc disease (JDDD) aka juvenile disc disease (JDD) and was curious if we should have an article on the subject. Here is one mention: Juvenile degenerative disc disease: a report of 76 cases identified by magnetic resonance imaging Thanks. Biosthmors (talk) pls notify me (i.e. &#123;&#123;U&#125;&#125;) while signing a reply, thx 19:48, 20 May 2016 (UTC)
 * and book--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 20:31, 20 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Do you think that this is a different 'thing' from plain old degenerative disc disease, or is it the regular thing in a special population? WhatamIdoing (talk) 21:00, 20 May 2016 (UTC)
 * I don't know WhatamIdoing. The article on DDD says it is a "disease of micro/macro trauma and of aging", which may or may not be accurate. If accurate, then maybe a separate article would make sense. Or perhaps it's better described as an and/or relationship with regard to aging. Biosthmors (talk) pls notify me (i.e. &#123;&#123;U&#125;&#125;) while signing a reply, thx 13:45, 27 May 2016 (UTC)
 * That suggests that JDDD and DDD are separate topics. Maybe per User:soupvector's idea, it could start life as a section of Childhood arthritis, and WP:SPLIT if it grows too big?
 * We need more rheumatologists around here. WhatamIdoing (talk) 23:23, 27 May 2016 (UTC)
 * This certainly falls into the topic of Childhood arthritis, not sure if it warrants separate coverage. &mdash; soupvector (talk) 21:02, 20 May 2016 (UTC)


 * BTW,Degenerative_disc_disease could use editor help/edits, thank you--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 15:07, 22 May 2016 (UTC)

"Is a term for" wording in place of "is the formal diagnosis" at Gender dysphoria article
Opinions are needed on the following mater: Talk:Gender dysphoria. A WP:Permalink for it is here. Flyer22 Reborn (talk) 06:52, 28 May 2016 (UTC)


 * give opinion(gave mine--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 11:38, 28 May 2016 (UTC)

media coverage - "Why getting medical information from Wikipedia isn’t always a bad idea"


Thanks to for authoring this. Does Gwinyai Masukume, the third author, have a Wikipedia account that is public?  Blue Rasberry  (talk)  15:46, 26 May 2016 (UTC)
 * well done--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 22:08, 26 May 2016 (UTC)
 * My role was very minor. Mostly Gwinyai. Doc James  (talk · contribs · email) 23:17, 26 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Ditto And no,   Blue Rasberry , Gwinyai Masukume does not have a public Wikipedia account. Mikael Häggström (talk) 14:03, 28 May 2016 (UTC)

Pulmonary atresia
the above mid-importance article could use some help/edits from any editor, thanks--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 22:33, 28 May 2016 (UTC)

Is Cureus a reliable journal?
I am curious what editors opinions are regarding the relatively new journal Cureus. It might be a reliable journal because it seems peer-reviewed, has a solid editorial board and is indexed in Medline. It might be an inappropriate journal because it is new and uses a novel open access platform. Thoughts? 2001:56A:75B7:9B00:F155:3651:86CD:A6E4 (talk) 17:10, 25 May 2016 (UTC)
 * It's not listed on Ulrich's Periodical Directory as peer-reviewed. Also, Beall's list has some questions about the quality of its peer review. I'd say it would be better find a stronger source and if one doesn't exist, it's probably because the material is undue. —PermStrump  ( talk )  17:41, 25 May 2016 (UTC)
 * It appears to be rather indiscriminate in what it accepts (anything that passes peer review). The peer review seems to be conducted by whomever is available on short notice.  WhatamIdoing (talk) 19:34, 25 May 2016 (UTC)
 * ?--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 19:47, 25 May 2016 (UTC)
 * No impact factor as of 2013 per http://cofactorscience.com/blog/journal/cureus so agree it is not sufficient. Doc James  (talk · contribs · email) 07:46, 26 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Fun fact #1: "Impact factor" isn't even mentioned in MEDRS.  Neither the existence of an impact factor, nor any particular minimum threshold, is actually required by any guideline on reliable sources.  I think, considering their newness and lack of selectivity (what Co-factor Science diplomatically calls a "mega journal"), that we can safely assume that their impact factor, should anyone ever bother to calculate it, would be low.
 * Fun fact #2: Cureus' founder's blog links to our article on impact factors.  WhatamIdoing (talk) 16:40, 26 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Policy/guidlelines grow from practice. We bring in impact factors all the time when weighing sources on article Talk pages and it is probably time we add it MEDRS. Jytdog (talk) 17:26, 26 May 2016 (UTC)
 * I don't claim to be a MEDRS expert by any stretch, but it seems to me that the impact factor concept provides potent evidence of a journal's reputation, which is already a central component of MEDRS. In other words, impact factor is highly relevant even if it isn't explicitly referenced in the guideline. --Dr. Fleischman (talk) 17:40, 26 May 2016 (UTC)
 * If compared to a similar journal, you can get some idea of the number of scholars who cite the articles in the one versus the other, which is probably a decent marker of interest or relevance, or at least the fashionability of its subject matter. That's not quite the same thing as "reputation", since even Medical Hypotheses has an impact factor above 1 (a commonly proposed threshold in such discussions).
 * The main problem is when editors use impact factors to compare non-comparable journals. Magazine circulation, the number of articles published each year, and the FUTON bias significantly affect the impact factor, irrespective of actual quality.  Niche journals have lower impact factors than general medical journals, even when the niche journal is higher quality.  Review journals get more citations than original experiments (this bias works well for our purposes, of course).  An impact factor of 1.0 is decidedly weak for some types of journals, but rather good for others.
 * I agree with Jytdog that people do talk about impact factors, usually when they're trying to provide a rational-sounding reason for rejecting a source they dislike. However, these discussions frequently involve such ham-fisted, one-size-fits-all notions, and with no effort to determine whether the journal's average popularity among authors is relevant to the particular proposed claim, that the result is some poor decisions.  We're probably headed to the same place with impact factors that WP:NSCHOOLS reached long ago:  some editors will assert that all elementary schools are non-notable, even if you have provided dozens of top-quality sources, but every high school in the developed world is notable, even if the only (semi-)independent source you've found is the neighborhood newspaper.  That doesn't demonstrate good editorial judgment.
 * I keep hoping that User:DGG will write up a good explanation of the pitfalls at Impact factor, but I recognize that this is a time-consuming request.  WhatamIdoing (talk) 01:38, 27 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Just dealing with this journal, no journal can as a matter of  definition   have an impact factor until it has been published for two full years--that is required before the computation can be done.  Whether this is a RS depends on the quality of the peer review which is promised.
 * More generally, and very briefly: the key thing about impact factor is that it is field-depoendent--it depends on the density of citations in a subject. Since articles  in clinical medicine   very heavily cite each other, high impact factors are to be expected. If we take the journals indexed by science citation index as the totality of the reputable journals, the most interesting statistic is where the journal stands in the list of those for the particular subject, and ISI specifically publishes those rankings.
 * There are multiple factors which additionally need interpretation. Since all articles in a field cite the most recent review articles, review journals as distinct from primary journals have unusually high impact factors. Citation measures interest as much as merit--journals concentrating on topics heavily in vogue also have higher impact factors than they would otherwise warrant. These are questions of interpretation, rather than error, but there are also sources of error, such as a journal having one or two heavily cited articles not representative of the whole, and the various modes of self-citation that cause unrealistically high impact factors. ISI normally correct for these, or if extreme, removes the journal.
 * It's just like judge RSs for WP, or judging whether a scientist is an authority: judging the reliability of a journal is not mechanical, and takes judgment. One key non-impact related factor that is particularly pertinent in this field, especially with alt med, is that a few journals will quite deliberately publish what they know to be controversial articles in order to encourage discussion--the famous journal most noted for doing so every once in a while is Nature.  DGG ( talk ) 03:52, 27 May 2016 (UTC)


 * For context, this user has been trying to introduce changes in vertebral artery dissection that seem to downplay the possible role of chiropractic. JFW &#124; T@lk  22:52, 28 May 2016 (UTC)

"Reinforcement disorders" = addiction?
In drug articles there is an "adverse effects" section. For addictive drug articles, I would expect "addiction" to be listed as an adverse effect, and it is. But "addiction" is currently under a heading called "Reinforcement disorders" with related issues, like dependence or withdrawal.
 * Ethanol
 * MDMA
 * Morphine
 * Opioid
 * Caffeine

I am not familiar with the term "reinforcement disorder". There is no wiki article on the concept. Is this the best section title? Here are some other possible names - I know that some of these are technical terms. Is there a common name that can be used?  Blue Rasberry  (talk)  13:37, 26 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Addiction
 * Addiction and related issues
 * Habitual use
 * Dependence
 * Substance abuse
 * Addiction is a disorder involving positive reinforcement. Dependence is a disorder involving negative reinforcement. Removing the grouped heading probably wouldn't be a problem, but merging dependence and addiction into 1 heading is a bad idea.  Seppi  333  (Insert 2¢) 15:30, 26 May 2016 (UTC)
 * : Do you have a source for that? I've never heard that distinction made before about positive vs negative reinforcement. I've also never heard of reinforcement disorders., what about calling the sections "Substance use disorders"? —PermStrump  ( talk )  15:39, 26 May 2016 (UTC)
 * This review makes the distinction between addiction and dependence at the molecular level when discussing their mechanisms. This review can give you a primer on how reinforcement drives compulsive behavior in SUDs, particularly through secondary reinforcement; it uses the terms "addiction" and "dependence" interchangeably though, so this might be confusing. This textbook chapter is a slightly less focused but covers essentially the same material.  Personally, I don't really care what the heading is titled so long as the subheadings are kept separate. An alternative would be to just remove the heading and increase the heading level of the subsections.  Keeping the discussion of addiction and dependence separate in an article reflects the distinction we've been making in MOS:MED/MOS:PHARM and in the drugbox fields for addiction vs dependence liabilities.  Seppi  333  (Insert 2¢) 16:38, 26 May 2016 (UTC)
 * "Substance use disorders" may be adequate. Sizeofint (talk) 17:02, 26 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Then where do the "addictive" behavioural disorders (sex, videogame, gambling, etc.) go? If the underlying neurochemistry is the same, shouldn't they share the same top-level article?LeadSongDog come howl!  18:13, 26 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Addiction has a section on behavioral addiction so I think they do share the same top-level article. Sizeofint (talk) 20:31, 29 May 2016 (UTC)

Referencing popular culture in medical articles / Amyotrophic_lateral_sclerosis
This text was added


 * A storyline in the Incredible Hulk series in 2000 saw Bruce Banner dealing with the revelation that he has ALS

Often people reference the comic itself or the tv show etc. IMO this is primary research? Wondering what others thoughts are? Doc James (talk · contribs · email) 15:37, 16 May 2016 (UTC)
 * agree this edit does not enhance the Society and culture section of Amyotrophic_lateral_sclerosis...IMO(while the Research section could use help/edits)--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 21:41, 16 May 2016 (UTC)
 * That edit is actually valid in terms of fiction and TV shows. MOS:PLOT says: The plot summary for a work, on a page about that work, does not need to be sourced with in-line citations, as it is generally assumed that the work itself is the primary source for the plot summary. However, editors are encouraged to add sourcing if possible. If a plot summary includes a direct quote from the work, this must be cited using inline citations per WP:QUOTE. Sometimes a work will be summarized by secondary sources, which can be used for sourcing. Otherwise, using brief quotation citations from the primary work can be helpful to source key or complex plot points. Presenting fictional material from the original work is allowed, provided passages are short, are given the proper context, and do not constitute the main portion of the article. If such passages stray into the realm of interpretation, per WP:PRIMARY, secondary sources must be provided to avoid original research. Plot summaries cannot engage in interpretation and should only present an obvious recap of the work.
 * Feels terribly like OR to me but that is how those people roll. There isn't a basis in policy/guideline to exclude it in the Society and culture section.  Maybe split off in a subsection about popular culture/media or something. Jytdog (talk) 23:08, 16 May 2016 (UTC)
 * makes a fair point about MOS:PLOT, but there is something that feels weird about it. I think it arguably goes against MOS:INUNIVERSE, unless there are independent sources saying the same thing. I'm not familiar with the comic, but if there aren't other sources saying the same thing, I wonder if the comic explicitly said he had ALS or if it was just heavily implied. Tagging since this thread is getting a little old.  —PermStrump  ( talk )  17:06, 17 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Oh no, that happened. I remember buzz in ALS-land when that issue published. Jytdog (talk) 21:42, 17 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Hah, well then I would assume it could be backed up with a more reliable source. —PermStrump  ( talk )  02:42, 18 May 2016 (UTC)


 * I have generally always stood by the principle that cultural allusions should be supported by a secondary source, ideally one that documents the impact on the public perception of a medical condition. Just saying that a disease is used a plot device is not encyclopedic in my view. JFW &#124; T@lk  09:46, 19 May 2016 (UTC)
 * If diseases as plot devices were notable, there'd be about 1 disease/popular culture reference for every episode of House (TV series) (177 total), which includes ALS.  Seppi  333  (Insert 2¢) 17:52, 20 May 2016 (UTC)
 * I just noticed Wikipedia literally has an entire list-class article dedicated to this: List of diagnoses from House (TV series). ALS was a plot device in an episode titled "Do not resuscitate" (DNR (House)).  Seppi  333  (Insert 2¢) 21:57, 29 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Yeah, see that. Shall we then exclude the series from all the "In popular culture" sections? Not sure whether the series left a lasting impression on popular culture - although, again, I am not based in the US. — kashmiri  TALK  07:43, 21 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Wouldn't it be simplest and most consistent to base inclusion on notability in reliable sources? If a RS indicates that a mention on House is notable, then include it. I see no consistency in having an arbitrary approach to one series. But, I don't watch TV so I may be overestimating the value of sourcing on this topic.  &mdash; soupvector (talk) 15:58, 21 May 2016 (UTC)
 * The question is did whatever bit of popular culture have a meaningful impact on the disease? If no we should not mention it at the disease article. Could go on the article about the popular culture thing though. I see much of this as trivia unless if gets significant third party press. Doc James  (talk · contribs · email) 17:38, 22 May 2016 (UTC)

Added summary here  Doc James  (talk · contribs · email) 17:45, 22 May 2016 (UTC)
 * From what I understand http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2082580/?ref_=ttep_ep4 is user generated thus would not be a sufficient source for ? Doc James  (talk · contribs · email) 01:52, 25 May 2016 (UTC)
 * IMDB is user-generated, so it shouldn't be used to establish WEIGHT for including the citation. I'm not sure how one would decide that though. —PermStrump  ( talk )  02:18, 25 May 2016 (UTC)

Today's featured article/June 16, 2016
Hi guys. This one is Pancreatic cancer. I notified the FAC nominator, but he hasn't edited since February. A diff of the lead since February looks fine to me, but eyes on the article would be appreciated. - Dank (push to talk) 20:31, 29 May 2016 (UTC)
 * will look--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 10:41, 30 May 2016 (UTC)


 * Ping — which is his main account. Nice one John!  Carl Fredik   💌 📧 12:55, 30 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Thanks - I must say I thought it had been TFA already. Johnbod (talk) 12:59, 30 May 2016 (UTC)

Kshara
The article Kshara, above a form of traditional Indian medicine, makes claims about the treatment of medical disorders that is clearly under the ambit of this project, but I don't believe meets the standards required for medical articles. Could people with expertise in this area please take a look at it? -- The Anome (talk) 06:26, 31 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Wow. I moved all that to Talk and created a sourced stub.  Thanks for bringing that here.  Jytdog (talk) 08:43, 31 May 2016 (UTC)

Ion channel hypothesis of Alzheimer's disease
new article, needs lots of work. Jytdog (talk) 22:05, 29 May 2016 (UTC)
 * no link at main (FA) article?--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 10:16, 31 May 2016 (UTC)

Specific question
Hello all! I was going through Amphotericin_B and I'm having trouble corroborating the following sentence: "can lead to amphotericin resistance in species such as scedosporium prolificans without having to effect (?) cell wall ergosterol", within the two sources specified, and. Any thoughts? Much appreciated. Oh and ping me if you can. Regards, FoCuS contribs ;  talk to me!  23:58, 30 May 2016 (UTC)
 * The first source contains these statements: "An early study demonstrated that addition of free radicals scavengers, such as catalase and/or superoxide dismutase, protects C. albicans protoplasts from the lytic effect of AmB (Sokol-Anderson et al., 1986)." and "Acquired resistance to AmB is very low despite its widespread use. Secondary resistance has been described in C. tropicalis, C. parapsilosis, C. lusitanie, and C. haemulonii (Powderly et al., 1988; Ellis, 2002). In contrast, in the last years, there has been an increase in the incidence of infections caused by fungi intrinsically resistant to AmB, such as A. terreus, Fusarium spp, and Scedosporium prolificans (Cuenca-Estrella et al., 1999; Sutton et al., 1999; Khan et al., 2007; Rogasi et al., 2007). I think that the editor conflated the two and missed the point that Scedosporium prolificans is described as intrinsically resistant to AmB, compared with Candida albicans, which can gain resistance to AmB in the presence of anti-oxidative agents even though the membrane channel mechanism would remain unaffected. Perhaps you can amend our article to better summarise the source?
 * The second source, relating the effect of Doxorubicin on AmB action, is weak, by the way, and as a primary study really doesn't deserve a mention when considering mechanism of action and effectiveness (those topics benefit greatly from using a secondary source). Hope that helps. --RexxS (talk) 01:22, 31 May 2016 (UTC)
 * I could only understand about every other word, but I'm procrastinating some stuff that I need to be doing at home, so I figured I'd trim off some of the superfluous wording and add some wikilinks to make it easier to understand. I was wondering if the editor had misunderstood the same section that pasted above (except I wouldn't have been able to articulate it as well), so I agree with RexxS that the sources do not corroborate the part of the sentence that you asked about.  —PermStrump  ( talk )  01:57, 31 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Thank you both very much. I'll try to amend the passage accordingly, after going through some literature. Best, FoCuS contribs ;  talk to me!  10:59, 31 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Thank you both very much. I'll try to amend the passage accordingly, after going through some literature. Best, FoCuS contribs ;  talk to me!  10:59, 31 May 2016 (UTC)

Tech stuff
If you're interested in (semi-)technical stuff such as page views, plagiarism detection, or improved diffs, then you will probably be interested in m:2015 Community Wishlist Survey/Status report 2. WhatamIdoing (talk) 04:57, 1 June 2016 (UTC)
 * very useful, thank you WAID--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 10:36, 1 June 2016 (UTC)

MedicineNet
This edit, which caught my eye, added MedicineNet.com as a source. When I looked, it seemed like a rather questionable website, loaded down with tons of low-value graphics. Does this seem to others to be a source we should be using? LeadSongDog come howl!  20:24, 1 June 2016 (UTC)
 * Is it better than nothing, maybe. Is it a good source, No. Doc James  (talk · contribs · email) 21:44, 1 June 2016 (UTC)
 * MedicineNet is owned and operated by WebMD and so is in the same category of non-peer-reviewed health-for-the-layperson publications from a medical organization like the Mayo Clinic Health Letter and Harvard Health Letter. On rare occasion, when sound secondary or MEDRS-quality sources aren't available, something like MedicineNet fills a temporary gap. Typical of such articles, the report on kinesio tape (almost pseudoscience "alternative medicine", in my view) is written by one author and reviewed/approved by two MDs, which is really a thin layer of peer-review with inadequate skepticism. --Zefr (talk) 22:27, 1 June 2016 (UTC)
 * And possibly therefore reflective of current Western medical practice, although that's irrelevant for the context. The source is being used to support this claim:  "The tape is applied with the affected muscle in a stretched position, taping from the origin of the muscle to the insertion point. Once applied, it is rubbed to activate the pressure-sensitive adhesive".  That doesn't need a gold-plated source behind it.
 * Also, that in that diff, the WebMD-related source is being used to replace a link to a FAQ on the manufacturer's website, which probably constitutes an net improvement for the article. We must not let the perfect be the enemy of the good, especially where somewhat spammy refs are concerned.  WhatamIdoing (talk) 23:01, 1 June 2016 (UTC)
 * Yes agree it is a mid tier source rather than simply spam. Doc James  (talk · contribs · email) 10:01, 2 June 2016 (UTC)
 * Ok, thank you all. LeadSongDog come howl!  19:26, 2 June 2016 (UTC)
 * It looks like there are some reviews available on the subject that aren't currently cited in the article:, , .  (They may say the same things as the currently cited ones, but if you're looking for more, you might start there.)  WhatamIdoing (talk) 06:56, 3 June 2016 (UTC)

Medullary cystic kidney disease
Hey folks, the article on Medullary cystic kidney disease needs to be reorganized into more sections. Currently it has an excessive use of bullets which should instead be made into discrete section headings. Also, it may be possible that the article may need to be revised, with more and/or better information needing to be added to the article. Please help me out in cleaning up the article. Please message me on my talk page (User talk:Njain1091). NJ (talk) 18:49, 2 June 2016 (UTC)

I understand the article is not of High importance, but I thought why not? Perhaps the physicians in this WikiProject can chime in. NJ (talk) 18:53, 2 June 2016 (UTC)
 * will look (needs refs, needs further trimming and maybe split into two articles...)--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 19:34, 2 June 2016 (UTC)
 * Yes needs a rewrite. Doc James  (talk · contribs · email) 07:54, 3 June 2016 (UTC)