2008/11/25 Nathan <nawrich(a)gmail.com>om>:
We have a megaphone at our disposal, the question is
how to use it
effectively. Warnings are pointless - we put all sorts of warnings on the
medications we dispense, but I attend probably two to three lectures a year
on how ineffective these warnings are. People don't read them - we're lucky
if they read and understand the directions. Some states require spoken
counseling on instructions and side effects because so few people read
warnings and other information when they receive medication. Warnings on
Wikipedia drug articles are unlikely to be all that effective, and if you
start putting specific disclaimers on these you will need to start doing it
on hundreds of other categories of articles as well.
I think the very best thing we can do in terms of serving the public
is to have as clear, accurate and referenced information as we can, in
a well-written article, i.e. what we do anyway.
- d.