MOVE OVER GOOGLE, THERE IS A NEW DOCTOR IN TOWN

# COOLSTUFF Four out of five Australians use Google as their first consultation when they are concerned about their health. Additionally, in line with global averages, Australian adults receive appropriate care on 57% of the time. A new Australian initiative seeks to replace this lack of qualified information with a high quality, reliable source of peer-reviewed medical diagnostic and treatment information - STANDING Collaborations.

The internet is a wonderful tool for helping consumers research healthcare issues, but it is also a haven for misinformation and biased opinions. Consumers need to be able to trust the information they find online.

In an initiative to combat both the growing pattern of medical misinformation that lives online and getting agreement on what constitutes appropriate care, an online tool has been developed to provide quality information on the key medical conditions outlined as National Health Priority Areas.

The wiki-style website was built by us: The Project Factory (the digital global development arm of Way To Blue). The platform was created for researchers at the Centre for Population Health Research at the University of South Australia led with Professor Bill Runciman, and is part of a Program Grant awarded from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).

STANDING Collaboration brings experts and healthcare specialists together with interested members of the public for the first time, to both create standardised medical diagnosis and treatment recommendations and also take feedback from those impacted by these proposed guidelines.

By ensuring all information is evidence-based, researched, referenced and peer reviewed by a team of unbiased medical professionals, STANDING Collaboration seeks to be a ‘source of truth’ for common healthcare issues that the general public will trust for their information.

The same peer review process that the medical industry relies on to progress scientific knowledge should also be used in distributing the knowledge itself. We have been really excited to be part of such an innovative trial and bring our experience in the healthcare industry to the project.

The site gives full transparency over the sources and the evolution of the clinical indicators, and allows other healthcare professionals and the general public to contribute their edits, knowing that the suggestion will not be incorporated into the site until it is thoroughly vetted for accuracy. The project is an attempt to provide an innovative solution to the myriad of unqualified recommendations that can be found online. All contributions, accepted or not, are made visible to all users, however the core recommendations are not amended or re-published until the comments have been peer reviewed.

Three key factors have been put in place to ensure clinical indicators are established and agreed upon at a national level:

• A single open and collaborative process which allows health care professionals and consumers to contribute to healthcare recommendations based on their own experience

• Complete sources of the clinical recommendations presented (provenance)

• Use of a live and online wiki-based platform to facilitate ongoing review and updates, with full transparency of the review process.

STANDING Collaboration has launched with Lower Back Pain and Hypertension as it’s first conditions to establish clear diagnosis and treatment commentary approved by an approved expert panel. Members of the general public who wish to take part are invited to register and take part now.