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Objective: To determine the significance of the English Wikipedia as a source of online health information.

Design: The authors measured Wikipedia's ranking on general Internet search engines by entering keywords from MedlinePlus, NHS Direct Online, and the National Organization of Rare Diseases as queries into search engine optimization software. We assessed whether article quality influenced this ranking. The authors tested whether traffic to Wikipedia coincided with epidemiological trends and news of emerging health concerns, and how it compares to MedlinePlus.

Measurements: Cumulative incidence and average position of Wikipedia^® compared to other Web sites among the first 20 results on general Internet search engines (Google^®, Google UK^®, Yahoo^®, and MSN^®), and page view statistics for selected Wikipedia articles and MedlinePlus pages.

Results …