Crowdsourcing
From the Editor
Dr. Schwarzenberger is the former physician editor of DermWorld.
By Kathryn Schwarzenberger, MD, April 1, 2021
Who would have ever thought this would be a word we associate with the acquisition of medical knowledge? And yet, here we are. The pandemic changed a lot of things, and, in a most fascinating way, many of us watched as crowdsourcing almost overnight became a means for rapidly sharing knowledge as we learned about the novel coronavirus. As a member of several Facebook physician groups, I was intrigued to see how some physicians quickly shed their reliance on our traditional (and arguably slow and stodgy) means of acquiring and disseminating medical knowledge (clinical trials + peer-reviewed publication) in favor of crowdsourced expert opinion and anecdote. Obviously, we needed answers quickly, and social media provided us with the means to connect almost instantaneously with others all over the world. Their shared experiences provided guidance at a time when there was little else available. Was this a good or bad thing? In retrospect, some of the information shared early in the pandemic did not hold up, as treatments touted early on were later found to have no efficacy. However, some good has come from crowdsourced information, including the amazing COVID-19 Dermatology Registry, which sprang up with lightning speed thanks to the efforts for Dr. Esther Freeman and her team. I have been in medicine long enough to see many changes in how we acquire and share medical knowledge. When I started, knowledge was hard-bound, tethered to bookshelves in libraries. We had to go find it. This digital age has brought information directly to us, and technologies are advancing that allow us to learn from what we have learned. This quick access to knowledge obviously has huge benefits, but I do find myself wondering about any potential hidden costs. Perhaps only time will tell.
Spring is a time of transition in our organization, and I would be remiss if I did not thank several of our colleagues for their dedicated service to our organization during this past year(s). Drs. Bruce Thiers and Susan Taylor, along with all of our wonderful Board of Directors, did a masterful job leading us through this plague year! I would also like to offer a shout-out to the members of our own DermWorld Editorial Advisory Workgroup. You are probably most familiar with their very popular monthly column What’s Hot, in which our advisors offer their thoughts on articles and issues of particular importance to them and to our specialty. What you may not realize is that they also help set our editorial agenda, identifying topics of interest to be covered in upcoming issues of DermWorld. Finally, each member of the workgroup tags articles for more in-depth review in our Clinical Applications column. Our Workgroup is largely responsible for the growth of our magazine over the past few years, as they have pushed us to publish articles on interesting and relevant topics beyond those that we have covered in years past. I very much appreciate their hard work and dedication! Four of our Workgroup members are leaving (or have left) the team this year, and I thank them for their service: Dr. Edward Cowen, Dr. Deepti Gupta, Dr. Seth Matarasso, and Dr. Josephine Nguyen. Next month, I will introduce you to our new team members.
Since it is April, I am reminded of the old nursery rhyme “April showers bring May flowers.” The declining rates of infection coupled with more vaccine availability should give us all reason to hope. Hopefully, your daffodils are already blooming!
