Libre Pathology
Libre Pathology is a wiki-based pathology knowledge base. It is directed at pathologists, but open to anyone that wants to gain insight into the world of pathology.
Motivation
Imagine a world in which pathology knowledge is accessible to every person on the planet with an internet connection.
Philosophy
The philosophy here is deliver the goods straight and give a differential and images or at least links to some. Tables are considered highly desirable and decision trees useful. Dense text is seen as a weakness.
The task taken up here is no small one and it is challenging as pathologists not only often disagree on whether a certain feature is present, but also frequently on whether it important or even relevant to the diagnosis!
History
This project grew out the need to pass an exam and a realization that nuggets of wisdom scribbled down on a piece of paper are never to be found when needed most.
The finding little bits of information thing, in a pile of it, was a problem where the solution was already out there (it is called a database), and some guys had already made a really niffy interface using PHP, and then built one of the biggest damn web sites out there (Wikipedia). Thus, the software that runs Wikipedia, was the obvious choice.
The guy that started it passed that exam and then another one. Then, he realized the wiki is sort of useful... but could get even better with the help of others.
Milestones
- First edit - 12 May 2010.
- One thousand entities in the diagnosis category - 8 June 2012.
- The thousandth entry was ovarian serous borderline tumour.
- Five hundred content pages - 6 August 2012.
- The five hundredth page was MEDITECH.
- Twenty thousand edits - 23 January 2013.
- The twenty thousandth edit was on Medical lung diseases.
- First image (from the instant commons) - 12 May 2013.
- Seven hundred content pages - 28 September 2013.
- One thousand two hundred entities in the diagnosis category - 3 January 2014.
- One thousand content pages - 18 February 2014.
- The thousandth entry was high-grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia.
- Five thousand pages - 19 February 2014.
- The five thousandth page was Case 54.
- Total page views over 100,000 - 21 February 2014.
- Thirty thousand edits - 2 March 2014.
- The twenty thousandth edit was on end-stage kidney.
- Renamed Libre Pathology - 14 May 2014.
