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Community for Medical Advice?

Community Proposal

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Anonymous 1680

Can you create a new community like https://old.reddit.com/r/AskDocs/, https://old.reddit.com/r/medical/, https://old.reddit.com/r/DiagnoseMe/?

Stack Exchange's Medical Sciences Stack Exchange forbids medical advice, and I hope we can fill this gap! 

[Should the personal medical advice rule be changed? - Medical Sciences Meta Stack Exchange](https://medicalsciences.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1144/should-the-personal-medical-advice-rule-be-changed)

> While not perfect perhaps there’s a way individuals could post their StackExchange user ID in their Doximity profile. – [Henry Wei](https://medicalsciences.meta.stackexchange.com/users/17942/henry-wei "463 reputation") [Apr 5 at 17:12](https://medicalsciences.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1144/should-the-personal-medical-advice-rule-be-changed#comment5708_1144)

I agree with user nick012000.

> You did not address the main point of my post: if these questions are not answered on SE where there is quality control, they will be answered by the next site the person finds on Google instead. – [nick012000](https://medicalsciences.meta.stackexchange.com/users/17893/nick012000 "113 reputation") [Mar 27 at 0:32](https://medicalsciences.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1144/should-the-personal-medical-advice-rule-be-changed#comment5639_1145)

> My point is that by being a source of no information, you _become_ a source of bad information, de facto, because they'll go onto the next site on Google instead. – [nick012000](https://medicalsciences.meta.stackexchange.com/users/17893/nick012000 "113 reputation") [Mar 27 at 1:21](https://medicalsciences.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1144/should-the-personal-medical-advice-rule-be-changed#comment5643_1145)

Top Answer

Pax

No. It might be [a bad idea](https://web.archive.org/web/20201109132228/https://medicalsciences.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/747/how-long-can-this-site-be-popular-if-everybody-is-asked-to-see-a-doctor/748).

> Consider that on StackOverflow, if someone gave wrong advice, it could mess up a program and you'd have to troubleshoot. There are tons of programmers and it would be downvoted by other knowledgeable programmers. Time wasted but minimal harm done.
>
>But if someone gave you wrong health advice you could get sick, overlook something that was actually important, even die. Actual harm. And there aren't enough medical professionals here to recognize all wrong advice [and downvote it.]


"Medical Advice" is different from:

>...evidence-based answers to questions that do not pertain to an individual case.

which is _information_

>...readers can use..to guide their own understanding, and seek medical assistance where needed.

So I don't agree with the points presented by nick012000. 

The [linked thread](https://web.archive.org/web/20201109132228/https://medicalsciences.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/747/how-long-can-this-site-be-popular-if-everybody-is-asked-to-see-a-doctor/748)'s accepted answer has more good points, gave an actual (albeit hypothetical) scenario where harm was done, and IIUC was written by a medical professional.

Answer #2

Jack Douglas

I kind of agree — the whole point of the voting model is to improve the signal/noise ratio, and there is no reason why that can't 'work' for medical advice.

The problem is that there won't be much overlap with the technical communities here, and that's our hope for future growth; as one community catches on and starts to grow, it helps feed the next. But I don't think that's a reason to say no.

2 Answers