Training modules/dashboard/slides/11002-when-do-these-medical-guidelines-apply

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When do these medical guidelines apply?[edit]

The Wikipedia sourcing guidelines we'll discuss here, "MEDRS", apply specifically to "biomedical content." That means they apply to any statement related to the medical or mental health of human beings on Wikipedia, wherever they appear.

Ask yourself: Could someone conceivably use the statements to draw conclusions about their own physical or mental health? If so, use MEDRS.

This includes:

  • Statements about medicine, diseases, conditions, or diagnoses on Wikipedia.
  • Individual statements about human health, even within non-medical articles.
  • Content about human biochemistry or about medical research in animals (if it is relevant to human health).

Note that MEDRS applies to statements, not just articles. So, if you're writing about a plant in a botany article and decide to describe its medical uses, those statements would require MEDRS sourcing. The opposite is also true, as we'll see in the next slide.