Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/General Support Fund/Integrating Medical Knowledge in a Disintegrating World
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Applicant information
[edit]- Organization name or Wikimedia Username for individuals. (required)
- Wiki Project Med Foundation
- Do you have any approved General Support Fund requests? (required)
- Yes, I have already applied and received a General Support Fund
- You are applying as a(n). (required)
- Wikimedia Affiliate (chapter, thematic org., or user group)
- Are your group or organization legally registered in your country? (required)
- Yes
- Do you have a fiscal sponsor?
- No
- Fiscal organization name.
- N/A
- Please provide links to the following documents if they are available
These documentation can be provided in your local language(s), no translations required.
- Organizational website
- Detailed financial reporting and/or audits
- Documentation of the governance structure, board list, governance processes
- Documentation of the general assembly decision on your plan
- Full narrative report and prospectus for 2026-2028: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LfolPhCBzuOx0WKqQz7Jqv8FmFtEVBep9N5x_rIsTKQ
Organizational Website: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_Project_Med
Main proposal
[edit]- 1. Please state the title of your proposal. This will also be a title for the Meta-Wiki page. (required)
- Integrating Medical Knowledge in a Disintegrating World
- 2. Do you want to apply for the multi-year base funding for 3 years? (required) (only for returning applicants)
- Yes
- 2.1. Provide a brief overview of Year 2 and Year 3 of the proposed plan and how this relates to the current proposal and your strategic plan? (required)
Year 1: Broadening Foundations
The first year lays the groundwork by dramatically expanding access to reliable health information. Translation programs rapidly scale, bringing thousands of articles into dozens of languages with the support of new tools, dashboards, and volunteer networks. Offline access grows through the WikiMed app and Internet-in-a-Box, delivering medical content directly to health workers and students in underserved regions. At the same time, large-scale efforts to gather and release high-quality medical images, videos, and interactive tools are launched through NCCommons, VideoWiki, and data integration projects. Year 1 emphasizes reach and experimentation, ensuring that vital health information is both widely available and delivered in innovative formats across multiple languages and devices.
Year 2: Scaling and Standardization
The second year turns growth into systems. In Year 2, the project shifts from growth to systems. Translation hubs adapt content culturally and linguistically, offline access expands from pilots to wide distribution, and NCCommons content is curated and embedded directly into Wikipedia and MDWiki. Organizational capacity strengthens through staffing, regional leadership development, and refined global metrics.
Year 3: Consolidation and Impact
The third year matures the work into lasting systems and measurable outcomes. In Year 3, the work consolidates into lasting systems with measurable outcomes. Translation becomes multinational, offline access scales through government and NGO partnerships, and NCCommons evolves into a definitive global repository. Interactive tools and multilingual dashboards support public health decision-making, while peer-reviewed studies document impact. Diversified funding and leadership pipelines in LMICs secure sustainability.
- 3. Proposed start date. (required)
- 2026-01-01
- 4. Proposed end date. (required)
- 2028-12-31
- 5. Does your organization or group have an Affiliate or Organizational Annual Plan that can help us understand your proposal? If yes, please provide it. (required)
- No
- 6. Does your affiliate, organization or group have a Strategic Plan that can help us understand your proposal? If yes, please provide it. (required)
- Yes
- https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LfolPhCBzuOx0WKqQz7Jqv8FmFtEVBep9N5x_rIsTKQ
- 7. Where will this proposal be implemented? (required)
- International (more than one country across continents or regions)
- Since 2012, Wiki Project Med has been leading educational, technical, and outreach initiatives to make medical information accessible to people around the world, in their own language, online and offline. Our content is used and reused globally, especially in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMIC). We focus in particular on Africa, the Middle East, and southeast Asia--in countries including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brazil, India, Nigeria, Uganda, and Vietnam. Our translation program is global with an explicit goal of reaching dozens of lesser-spoken languages in every country. The top languages--by article count--are Odia, Telegu, Arabic, French, Spanish, Chinese, Portuguese, and Swahili. Our Internet In A Box (IIAB) initiative ships units to targeted LMIC countries with little, slow, or no internet access including Egypt, Yemen, Lebanon, Pakistan, and Honduras.
- 8. What are your programs, approaches, and strategies? What are the challenges that you are trying to address and how will your strategies support you in addressing these challenges? (required)
English Wikipedia has 30,000 medical articles, with 150,000 in 280+ languages. These receive 5 billion pageviews annually, making Wikipedia one of the leading sources of health information online. Wikipedia has been successful in addressing the public health needs of a literate, English-speaking population with reliable internet access; however, most people globally do not fall within this group. More than 80% of people do not speak English, and nearly half the world is not online. There is a global lack of access to accurate and empowering healthcare information for most people, in a language they can understand, in a format that they can benefit from. Tens of thousands of people die from simply this lack of information every day.
=
[edit]Focus Area: Language Empowerment
- The majority of healthcare content in the world is not in native speakers' languages.
- English Wikipedia has ample healthcare content but it's not designed for translation.
- Features needed for patients and health-care providers to make good decisions are not permitted on Wikipedia.
Our solution: MDWiki.com enhances Wikipedia, adds a layer of medical review, and makes stable versions of articles ready for translation into multiple languages. Essential content such as medication dosing, missing from Wikipedia, is included. With 5 million annual page views, MDWiki is serving content also used in our offline app and translation projects. We want MDWiki.com to grow and drive innovation across the public health information landscape.
Our solution: The Translation Task Force addresses needs of the other 300 languages in which Wikipedia exists. We have translated over thousands of articles, working in nearly 100 languages. This content receives tens of million of pageviews per year. We have a committed group of medical and language experts and are eager to scale our efforts.
Focus Area: Global Access
- Half the globe doesn't have reliable internet access to medical content.
- Libraries and schools in many regions lack health info due to poor infrastructure.
Our solution: The WikiMed App allows anyone to download medical content when the internet is present and save it for future offline use. Our apps are available for free on Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, and Linux, in multiple languages. They include medicine, anatomy, pharmacology, sanitation, medication doses, how-to advice, costs by region, explanation of procedures, and over 300 videos. With over 100,000 active installs, the app is being most used by people in Pakistan, India, Nepal, Egypt and other Arabic-speaking countries, and the United States. Many users are health care providers or doctors-in-training, so improving the quality and popularity of the app will directly impact local healthcare around the world.
Our solution: Internet-in-a-Box allows healthcare content to be accessed where there is no internet at all. These miniature devices contain all of English Wikipedia plus several other languages and MDWiki, along with a variety of educational content like Khan Academy. The small, inexpensive unit creates a Wi-Fi hotspot and gives access for up to 32 people within 100 meters to read, watch, learn and download. They cost $40 each to produce, and so far our volunteer-led pilot has been limited to making and mailing around 300 devices. If we could scale regional production and distribution, millions more could benefit.
Focus Area: Rich Content
- Healthcare professionals around the world need access to more medical images to diagnose and treat illnesses.
- The majority of free medical images have a license that is currently incompatible with Wikipedia, and thus they are not achieving their full reach and benefit.
Our solution: NCCommons.com collects and curates Non-Commercial (NC) and Non-Derivative (ND) licensed images. With over 1 million files, many of them high-quality medical images, we've created a central repository for all NC and ND licensed content. This is the first-ever effort to collect all the world's NC and ND licensed materials. Tens of millions more medical images, as well as Khan Academy videos, TED talks, etc exist under these licenses, but we need more resources and staff in order to gather and organize them en masse in the NCCommons repository.
- 9. What categories are your main programs and related activities under? Please select all that apply. (required)
| Category | Yes/No |
|---|---|
| Education | No |
| Culture, heritage or GLAM | No |
| Gender and diversity | No |
| Community support and engagement | No |
| Participation in campaigns and contests | No |
| Public policy advocacy | No |
| Other | Yes |
Other categories
Medicine, Public Health, Sanitation, Maternal Health, Mental Health
- 10. Please include a link to or upload a timeline (operational calendar) for your programs and activities. (required)
- Link to Timeline
- 11. Describe your team. (required)
Wiki Project Med is a 501(c)3 nonprofit approved by the Wikimedia Community to develop, organize, and distribute health care content. Its founders and board, nearly all physicians, include the top contributors to Wikipedia's medical content.Wiki Project Med is run by Chair James Heilman, with a talented and globally diverse board and numerous expert advisors--all of whom are unpaid volunteers.
Board Members: 7
- http://mdwiki.org/wiki/WikiProjectMed:Board#Board_members
- James Heilman, Anjna Harrar, Alaa Najjar, Stuart Ray, Diptanshu Das, Tim Moody, Mossab Banat
Advisors: 7
- http://mdwiki.org/wiki/WikiProjectMed:Board#Special_adviser
- Jennifer Dawson, Lane Rasberry, Daniel Mietchen, Sam Zidovetski, Shani Evenstein, Pratik Shetty, Doug Taylor
Contractors: 19
- Ryan Schmidt, Ibrahem Al-Radaei, Brian Wolff, Hassan Amin, James Hare, Yaron Koren, Dale Floer, Jake Orlowitz, Nicholas Cunningham, Zenia Tejada, Solomon Rosnau, Benoit Beraud, Anna Canatan, Chinthi Chathurika, Yuanqi Zhao, Hariadhi, Milla Andriana, Chidiebere Ibe
- 12. Will you be working with any internal (Wikimedia) or external partners? Describe the characteristics of these partnerships and bring a few examples of the most significant partnerships. (required)
MDWiki now forms the basis of our offline EN app for android, built in collaboration with Kiwix. This app has seen more than 120,000 downloads, mostly from low and middle income countries, many of who are health care providers or students. This allows us to be responsive to requests for improvements from our app users. Our partnership with Translators without Borders created over 20,000 articles in more than 150 languages. This translated content has received more than 20 billion pageviews! That work was carried out by more than 3,250 translators. ProZ has now begun onboarding additional volunteer translators to for our translation efforts. We developed an extension which allows use of Our World In Data (OWID) material securely within a mediawiki install. We have integrated their health related graphs into MDWiki. Plus we have developed templates so that the most recent version flows into our offline efforts. We are collaborating with the technical team at OWID on making their material more multilingual. Other partners include NIOSH (National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health) and the CDC, in the U.S., Cochrane, and the WHO (World Health Organization).
- 13. In what ways do you think your proposal most contributes to the Movement Strategy 2030 recommendations. Select all that apply. (required)
- Improve User Experience, Innovate in Free Knowledge, Evaluate, Iterate, and Adapt, Coordinate Across Stakeholders, Identify Topics for Impact
Metrics
[edit]Wikimedia Metrics
[edit]- 14. Please select and fill out Wikimedia Metrics for your proposal. (recommended)
- 14.1. Number of participants, editors, and organizers.
All metrics provided are optional, please fill them out if they are aligned with your programs and activities.
| Metrics name | Target | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Number of all participants | N/A | N/A |
| Number of all editors | N/A | N/A |
| Number of new editors | N/A | |
| Number of retained editors | N/A | |
| Number of all organizers | N/A | N/A |
| Number of new organizers | N/A |
- 14.2. Number of new content contributions to Wikimedia projects. (recommended)
| Wikimedia project | Created | Edited or improved |
|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia | ||
| Wikimedia Commons | ||
| Wikidata | ||
| Wiktionary | ||
| Wikisource | ||
| Wikimedia Incubator | ||
| Translatewiki | ||
| MediaWiki | ||
| Wikiquote | ||
| Wikivoyage | ||
| Wikibooks | ||
| Wikiversity | ||
| Wikinews | ||
| Wikispecies | ||
| Wikifunctions / Abstract Wikipedia |
- Description for Wikimedia projects contributions metrics. (optional)
Other Metrics
[edit]- 15. Do you have other quantitative and qualitative targets for your project (other metrics)? (required)
- Yes
| Other Metrics | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Language Empowerment | Metric: 300+ translators, 7,500+ articles translated, 70+ languages involved, 30 million+ pageviews.
Metric: Increase to 3,500 articles ready for translation. Metric: Number of communities visited as part of outreach (target is 6). |
1 |
| Global Access | Metric: 1,000 more IIAB devices distributed.
Metric: 300 VideoWiki videos uploaded, and VideoWiki working in 20 languages. Metric: Number of images transferred (target is 5 million). |
1 |
| Rich Content | Metric: 10 languages with interactive graphs, 5,000 graphs available.
Metric: 10 languages featuring the calculator tool on 300 pages. Metric: 5 partnerships with medical illustrators. |
1 |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
Budget
[edit]- 16. Will you have any other revenue sources when implementing this proposal (e.g. other funding, membership contributions, donations)? (required)
- Yes
- 16.1. List other revenue sources. (required)
We have four potential revenue streams we are pursuing:
1) The IIAB boxes themselves: They are sold at cost, but our costs are currently covered by grants, so the revenue accrues to WPMED.
2) IIAB donation campaign: With nearly 1000 devoted customers, we plan to email our prior buyers in a digital fundraising effort.
3) MDwiki.com banner campaign: Modeled after other large wikis, we will integrate and execute a major banner campaign for the website.
4) Large donor philanthropy: With greatly improved metrics and demonstrated effectiveness, we will revisit the top 10 medical, science, and health donors to request an infusion of funds.
- 16.2. Approximately how much revenue will you have from other sources in your local currency? (required)
- 80000
- 17. Your local currency. (required)
- USD
- 18. What is the total requested amount in your local currency? (required)
- 540000 USD
| Year | Amount (local currency) |
|---|---|
| Year 1 | 180000 USD |
| Year 2 | 180000 USD |
| Year 3 | 18000 USD |
- 19. Does this proposal include compensation for staff or contractors? (required)
- Yes
- 19.1. How many paid staff members do you plan to have? (required)
Include the number of staff and contractors during the proposal period. If you have short-term contractors or staff, please include them separately and mention their terms.
- Zero staff, 20 contractors.
- 19.2. How many FTEs (full-time equivalents) in total? (required)
Include the total FTE of staff and contractors during the proposal period. If you have short-term contractors or staff, please include their FTEs with the terms separately.
- Staff: 0 FTE (zero)
Contractors: 6.25 FTE
- 19.3. Describe any staff or contractor changes compared to the current year / ongoing General Support Fund if any. (required only for returning grantees)
- We have expanded our contractors significantly without significantly increasing costs. Our team now includes these paid contractors:
Ryan Schmidt, Ibrahem Al-Radaei, Brian Wolff, Hassan Amin, James Hare, Yaron Koren, Dale Floer, Jake Orlowitz, Nicholas Cunningham, Zenia Tejada, Solomon Rosnau, Benoit Beraud, Anna Canatan, Chinthi Chathurika, Yuanqi Zhao, Hariadhi, Milla Andriana, Chidiebere Ibe
- 20. Please provide an overview of your overall budget categories in your local currency. The budget breakdown should include only the amount requested with this General Support Fund (required).
| Budget category | Amount in local currency |
|---|---|
| Staff and contractor costs | 0 USD |
| Operational costs | 45000 USD |
| Programmatic costs | 135000 USD |
- 21. Please upload your budget for this proposal or indicate the link to it. (required)
Link to Budget
Additional information
[edit]- 22. In this optional space you can add any other additional information about your proposal or organization that you think can help us when reviewing your proposal. (optional)
Thank you to the committee!
By submitting your proposal/funding request you agree that you are in agreement with the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and the Universal Code of Conduct.
We/I have read the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and Universal Code of Conduct.
- Yes
Feedback
[edit]- Please add any feedback to the grant discussion page only. Any feedback added here will be removed.
- Wikimedia Community Fund/Proposals
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- General Support Fund proposals by Wiki Project Med Foundation
- Under review General Support Funds in FY 2025-26