Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Medicine-related articles

Suicide and self-harm

Suicide and self-harm should be written about in an

• Detailed descriptions of suicidal actions, comments about how people reacted to a death, and other emotional content are forms of sensationalism and are not appropriate for encyclopedia articles. If you are uncertain whether a detail would belong in a well-written encyclopedic summary of the subject, then err on the side of omitting it.
• Suicide and self-harm are complex behaviors with multi-factorial causes. Do not oversimplify the causes of suicide. Omit information about suicide notes and simplistic speculation on causes. Some errors include:
  • assuming that all people who attempt suicide have a mental illness;
  • assuming that people who attempt suicide actually want to be dead (e.g., vs. wanting to avoid a current or feared problem);
  • ascribing motivations to actions, such as saying that self-harming behaviors are "a cry for help" or to "send a message"; and
  • presenting suicide or self-harm as a "solution" to any problem. This is romanticism and unencyclopedic.
• Wikipedia is
  not a how-to manual
  . Well-written encyclopedia articles do not provide step-by-step instructions for anything, including suicide and self-harm behaviors.
• Language choices sometimes carry connotations that are not obvious to every editor. A term or phrase that sounds normal to you might sound stigmatising, offensive, or biased to someone else. Here are some common tips, but if someone suggests a change, try to learn about their viewpoint and see if a better approach can be found.
  • Do not describe suicide or other self-harm actions as being successful, unsuccessful, or failed. This is unclear and judgmental.
  • All deaths should be reported with equal brevity and clarity. For example, if you would have written "He died as a result of cancer" for a cancer death under reasonably similar circumstances, then write "He died as a result of suicide" for a suicide death.
  • The phrase committed suicide is not banned on the English Wikipedia,^[6] although many external style guides discourage it as being potentially stigmatising and offensive to some people. There are many other appropriate, common, and encyclopedic ways to describe a suicide, including:
    • died as a result of suicide
    • died by suicide
    • died from suicide
    • killed himself
    • The cause of death was suicide.
  • Avoid metaphorical and euphemistic language like lost her battle with depression.
  • There are real-world disputes about some terms (e.g.,
    medical aid in dying). The choice of terms may carry bias (e.g., by de-emphasizing a connection to suicide or medicalizing
    an action).

Medicine-related articles must adhere strictly to

The overall writing style of an article should reflect Wikipedia's nature as an encyclopedia.

General tone

• Do not address the reader directly. Ensure that your writing does not appear to
  a disclaimer to this effect is never required^[7] since the general disclaimer
  can be accessed from any page on Wikipedia. Statements using the word should frequently provide inappropriate advice (e.g., "People with this symptom should seek medical care") instead of plain statements of facts.
• Rely on wikilinks to help articles stay focused and to avoid placing undue weight on peripheral details. For example, when writing about a blood test, don't include the normal venipuncture procedures or the type of Vacutainer generally used. Instead, link to the normal procedures but provide any important and unusual information in the article you are working on.

Wikipedia is not a medical primary resource

• Wikipedia articles are not textbooks.
  • Most
    rules of thumb
    are not informative of the subject matter relevant to an encyclopedia. They are a form of memorable poetry, to aid medical students in recalling voluminous facts and procedures, and to pass examinations. They also risk non-neutrality when they winsomely express a point-of-view, reduce a complex subject to a simplified rote, or suggest an unverifiable authority. Just give the plain information, without the artificial and distracting adornment of memory aids.
• Wikipedia is not a procedural manual. Don't give "how-to" instructions. For example, when writing about a specific surgery, don't list all the equipment that will be needed or give advice on how to hold, store, use or clean it. Instead describe the guidelines and procedures in a reader-neutral manner, perhaps by using passive voice.
• Wikipedia is
  excessive examples
  should be avoided.
  • Collections of case studies may be transwikied to Wikibooks or to Wikiversity.

Cite sources, don't describe them

Sources should be used to make verifiable statements, but the sources themselves should not normally be discussed in an article.

• Do not provide a detailed analysis of an individual study unless the analysis itself is taken from a published reliable source. Wikipedia should concisely state facts about a subject. It should not discuss the underlying literature at any length. Generally speaking, the facts will be found in the conclusions or results section of a study, not in the detailed methodology. Articles that rely on secondary sources are less likely to fall into the trap of discussing the size of a single study, its methodology, its biases, and so forth. Thus, you should write "washing hands after defecating reduces the incidence of diarrhea in the wilderness", not "An uncontrolled survey involving 132 experienced long-distance backpackers on the Appalachian trail in 1997 concluded that washing hands after defecating reduces the incidence of diarrhea in the wilderness."
• Do not hype a study by listing the names, credentials, institutions, or other "qualifications" of their authors. The text of the article should not needlessly duplicate the names, dates, titles, and other information about the source that you list in the citation. Always omit professional titles and academic degrees: use "Smith" or "Jones" rather than "Dr Smith" or "Prof Jones". It is necessary to specifically include such information only when a specific individual is being cited as an example of a person holding a minority view: You might write, "The AIDS Denialist Society says that HIV is entirely harmless", but just use a plain statement for the widely accepted fact, "HIV causes Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome."
• Do not publish your own views about studies.

Technical terminology

Good encyclopedic writing will naturally teach the reader new words and help them build confidence with harder ones. While this can be done explicitly, with definitions in parenthesis for example, the most natural way to achieve this is to use the idiomatic words, the "proper" words for something, in context. Good writing will allow the reader to pick up enough of the meaning from this context.^[8]

When faced with an advanced technical word or medical

For terms related to anatomical position, you can link to Anatomical terms of location, e.g. [[Anatomical terms of location|lateral]].

Use the

Infoboxes should be used where appropriate. These include

• {{Infobox drug}} – for example, Paracetamol
• {{Infobox medical condition}} – for example, Down syndrome (also includes symptoms)
• {{Infobox medical intervention}} – for example, Cardiopulmonary resuscitation
• {{Infobox protein}}
• {{Infobox brain}} – for brain regions such as Broca's area
• {{Infobox anatomy}} – for general anatomic structures, with more specific infoboxes (e.g. {{Infobox bone}}) for particular types of structure.

Full instructions are available on the page for each infobox. A suitable picture for the infobox is encouraged. For drugs, the 2D

The following lists of suggested sections are intended to help structure a new article or an existing article that requires a substantial rewrite. Changing an established article simply to fit these guidelines might not be welcomed by other editors. The given order of sections may be varied, particularly if that helps an article progressively develop concepts and avoid repetition. Do not discourage potential readers by placing a highly technical section near the start of your article.

An appropriate list of appendices follows at the end of articles for citations and other resources.

Diseases or disorders or syndromes

Clinical articles can achieve a level of consistency by limiting their top-level headers to those specified below. However, the spectrum of medical conditions is huge, including infectious and genetic diseases, chronic and acute illness, the life-threatening and the inconvenient. Some sections will necessarily be absent or may be better merged, especially if the article is not (yet) comprehensive.

A disease that is now only of historical significance may benefit from having its History section moved towards the top. Establishing the forms of the disease (Classification) can be an important first section. However, if such classification depends heavily on understanding the cause,

The following list of suggested headings contains wikilinks; the actual headings should not.

• Classification: If relevant. May also be placed as a subheading of Diagnosis.
• symptoms
  or Characteristics or Presentation (subsection Complications)
• risk factors, triggers, genetics, virology (e.g., structure/morphology and replication
  ), spread.
• Mechanism: For information about pathogenesis and pathophysiology.
• Diagnosis: Includes characteristic biopsy findings and differential diagnosis.
• secondary prevention
  , it should follow the treatment section.)
• Treatment (or Management, especially for chronic conditions): This might include any type of currently used treatment, such as
  medically reliable sources
  .
• Outcomes or Prognosis. May also be labeled "Possible outcomes" or "Outlook".
• Epidemiology: factors such as incidence, prevalence, age distribution, and sex ratio.
• History: Early discoveries, historical figures, and outdated treatments (not patient history)
• Society and culture: This might include social perceptions, cultural history, stigma, economics, religious aspects, awareness, legal issues, and notable cases.
• Research directions: Include only if addressed by significant sources. See
  More research is needed
  ". Wikipedia is not a directory of clinical trials or researchers.
• Special populations, such as Geriatrics or Pregnancy or Children
• Other animals

Drugs, treatments, and devices

See also: Wikipedia:WikiProject Pharmacology/Style guide

The lead should highlight the name of the treatment product as per normal guidelines. In the case of drugs, this would include the

spam

and should be avoided if possible.

Avoid cloning drug formularies such as the BNF and online resources like RxList and Drugs.com. Extract the pertinent information rather than dumping low-level facts into a big list. For example, a long list of side effects is largely useless without some idea of which are common or serious. It can be illuminating to compare the drug with others in its class, or with older and newer drugs. Do not include dose, titration or pricing information except when they are extensively discussed by secondary sources, necessary for the discussion in the article, or when listing equivalent doses between different pharmaceuticals. Wikipedia is not an instruction manual or textbook and should not include instructions, advice (medical or otherwise) or "how-to"s. See also the Wikipedia:Medical disclaimer.

The following list of suggested headings contains wikilinks; the actual headings should not.

• Medical uses or Uses (how the intervention is used, along with evaluations of efficacy if available)
• Contraindications
• Adverse effects (may include "addiction", "dependence", or "withdrawal") or Side effects
• Overdose (including toxicity caused by overdose)
• Drug interactions or Interactions
• Pharmacology
  • Mechanism of action or Pharmacodynamics
  • absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion
    )
  • Pharmacomicrobiomics (if known, cover any clinically significant drug-microbiota interactions)
• Chemistry (for drugs)
  • Synthesis: Content should be encyclopedic, not instructional, and should include content and a source explaining the relevance of the synthesis information provided (the first, the one used to manufacture the drug, etc.).
  • Detection in body fluids
• Manufacturing
• History
• Society and culture
  • Legal status
  • Recreational use
  • Economics
  • Brand names
• Research: Include only if addressed by significant sources. See
  More research is needed". Wikipedia is not a directory of clinical trials or researchers. Avoid promotional
  descriptions of early-stage interventions.
• Veterinary use or other animals

Surgeries and procedures

• Uses (or Medical uses if clarification is required)
• Contra-indications
• Risks/Complications
• Technique (avoid step-by-step instructions)
• Recovery or Rehabilitation
• History (e.g., when it was invented)
• Society and culture (includes legal issues, if any)
• Special populations
• Other animals

Signs or symptoms

Most articles about

symptoms

should follow the below structure. Omit sections that secondary sources do not address and combine sections when this seems sensible. For example, the definition of some signs is amply covered by an explanation of the mechanism, so having a section dedicated to the definition would be redundant.

• Definition (current definitions)
• Differential diagnoses
• Pathophysiology or Mechanism
• Diagnostic approach or Evaluation
• Treatment or Management (for the symptom itself, if any: e.g., analgesics for pain)
• Epidemiology (incidence, prevalence, risk factors)
• History (of the science, not of the patient: e.g., "The oldest surviving description is in a medical text written by Avicenna.")
• Society and culture (e.g., cachexia was a literary symbol for tuberculosis in the 19th century and for AIDS in the 1980s.)
• Research (Is anything important being done?)
• Other animals

Medical tests

Articles about

diagnostic tests or other medical tests

may follow this suggested order. Many articles will only need some of these sections. This might also be a useful model for certain procedures.

While a general description of procedures may have encyclopedic value, articles about tests and other medical procedures should not provide step-by-step directions, patient instructions, disclaimers or warnings. Wikipedia is not an instruction manual and does not give medical advice.

• Types, if more than one kind or variant of the test or procedure exists
• Medical uses or Uses, including approved indications, non-approved indications (also called off-label uses), and contraindications
  • Interpretation of results, including accuracy and specificity of test results
• Adverse effects
• Procedure
  • Preparation
• Mechanism, how the test or procedure works
• Legal issues, such as whether special counseling is mandated, if any
• History of the test
• Society and culture
• Research
• Veterinary use

Anatomy

Shortcut

• WP:ANATMOS

• Structure including a description of location and size, course, insertions and attachments. Possible subsections for blood supply, lymphatic drainage and nerve supply if these are complex enough. If covered on the same page, subsections may be devoted to individual substructures.
  • Variations, describing variations, if appropriate
  • Development, discussing the embryological/foetal and early-life development of the structure. May be included as a subsection in "Structure", especially for minor anatomical structures.
  • Microanatomy or Histology, where appropriate
• Function or Physiology as appropriate
• Clinical significance, discussing related diseases, medical associations with the structure, and use in surgery.
• Society and culture, which may be excluded in minor anatomical structures.
• History, describing the structure and the etymology of the word. Etymology may be included as a separate subsection, if sufficient information exists.
• Other animals, which may include comparative anatomy for discussing non-human anatomy in articles that are predominantly human-based.
• Additional images may be used to display high-quality images, preferably in a
  gallery format
  . Each image must help the reader understand the subject and should provide something unique.

Additionally:

• The lead should begin by stating in the most general form the location and purpose of the structure. For example, "The metatarsals are bones found in the human foot."
• A link to the Commons image category for images may be provided in the "See also" section. If article makes use of anatomical terminology, please add {{Anatomy-terms}} or {{AT}} as the first link in the "See also" section.
• "Nerve supply" is preferred to "innervation" as a subsection title.
• If the article uses text from a public domain source, please add appropriate tags such as {{Gray's}} as the first link in the section relating to references.
• Do not add images: just because they are pretty; that are too similar to existing images; or several images of the same thing in different levels of zoom—assume instead that readers can use the gallery tool or click to see the image/more images on Commons. The {{Commons category}} link may be included in this section.

Medical specialties

• Scope including typical diseases/medical conditions; include any important sub-specialties
• History development of the field, including notable founders
• Investigations investigations, diagnostics, and related techniques used in the specialty
• Treatments
• Training may be subdivided by country if necessary
• Ethical and medicolegal issues any ethical issues that are specific to this field

This list of sections deliberately does not include: lists of professional organizations, training programs, publications, and companies working in the field.

Standard appendices

After the content of the article, please organize citations and other resources in the following order:

• See also: Avoid the
  navigation templates
  at the end.
• Notes and References: Both
  WP:Inline citations
  belong here.
• Further reading: The
  Further reading
  section lists books and other publications (not usually websites) that were not used as references and that editors recommend to readers. These may be historically important publications, significant textbooks, or popular science works. (It is best if when adding a journal it is of a general review type.)
• External links: Avoid if possible; see additional advice below.

Society and culture

Notable cases

Shortcuts

• WP:MEDCASE
• WP:MEDTRIVIA

See also: Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons, Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Trivia sections, and Wikipedia:Stand-alone lists § Lists of people

Articles on medical conditions sometimes include lists of notable cases of the disease. For the person to be included in such a list there must be significant coverage of them having the condition, not simply a mention in passing or them self disclosing on social media. One restriction that some editors favor is to include only those individuals who have lastingly affected the popular perception of a condition, such as through public awareness campaigns that have received enduring media coverage.

Unsourced additions, particularly about living persons, must be removed. Responsibility for justifying controversial claims rests firmly on the shoulders of the editor making the claim. Be very firm about high-quality references, particularly about details of personal lives.

If the list is (or could be) long enough to support a separate article, then consider

Naming conventions

generally discourage the use of words such as "notable" or "famous" in such list titles.

Media portrayals

Before including in a disease or medication article that the topic was covered in a television show, movie, or book there must be significant third-party coverage of the event. Therefore, it is not enough to reference the

Internet Movie Database

or the book itself. The event must have been commented on by the medical literature or mainstream press.

These details^{[clarification needed]} may be included in the article about the show or book based on criteria found in those guidelines^{[clarification needed]}.

Etymology

Etymologies are often helpful, particularly for anatomy. Features that are derived from other anatomical features (that still have shared terms in them) should refer the reader to the structure that provided the term, not to the original derivation. For example, the etymology section of Deltoid tuberosity should refer the reader to the deltoid muscle, not to the definition 'delta-shaped, triangular'. The etymology in Deltoid muscle

, however, should identify the Greek origin of the term.

In articles that focus on anatomy, please include the Latin (or Latinized Greek) name of anatomical objects, as this is very helpful to interwiki users and for people working with older scientific publications.

Many articles about eponymous diseases and signs include the origin of the name under the history section.

External links

See also: Wikipedia:External links, Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not, and Wikipedia:Reliable sources

Disease-related organisations and government health departments sometimes produce web pages containing substantial information that would be of interest to readers wishing to further study the topic. Such links are chosen for the information content, not because the organisation is particularly worthy or helpful. All links must meet Wikipedia's external links guidelines, which in particular exclude discussion forums.

Don't use external links

1. that lead to information already included in the article
2. to web-based or email-based support groups for patients, professionals, or other affected people (even if run by a charitable organization)
3. to local, state, or regional charities, hospitals, clinics, or programs, or to meetings or events in a single location
4. to personal experiences or survivor stories
5. that recruit for clinical trials, sell products, or raise money

If the disease is very rare, then a manageable set of charitable organisations may be of encyclopaedic interest. In these cases, prefer links that provide information that is likely to be interesting to readers worldwide, such as a detailed article on the specific topic. It is usually better to link to an external web page that lists such charities, rather than try to provide such a list ourselves. The {{

Open Directory Project that contains many such links. For example, on the Tourette syndrome

page:

  * {{Curlie|Health/Conditions_and_Diseases/Neurological_Disorders/Tourette_Syndrome/Organizations}}

gives:

• Tourette syndrome at
  Curlie

There are a number of templates that help format external links for common medical web sites. Full instructions are available on their respective pages. The most common ones are integrated in {{Medical resources}}.

• Diseases Database: {{DiseasesDB}}
• eMedicine: {{eMedicine}} and {{eMedicine2}} — clinical overviews of disease entities by experts in the field.
• OMIM (Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man): {{OMIM
  }} — database of genetic disorders.
• ID
  .
• PubMed Central: {{PMC}}
• MedlinePlus}} and {{MedlinePlus2}}—plain English medical encyclopaedia NIH
  .
• National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke: {{NINDS}}
• SUNY Downstate Medical Center: {{SUNYAnatomyFigs}}—an excellent source of online anatomic preparations.
• Who Named It?: {{WhoNamedIt}} and {{WhoNamedIt2
  }}—medical eponyms and the people associated with their identification.

Citing medical sources

Shortcuts

• WP:CITEMED
• WP:MEDREF

For guidance on choosing and using reliable sources, see Wikipedia:Identifying reliable sources (medicine) and Wikipedia:Reliable source examples § Physical sciences and medicine.

For general guidance on citing sources, see Wikipedia:Citing sources, Help:Footnotes, and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Layout § Standard appendices and footers.

Medical articles should be relatively dense with inline citations. It is not acceptable to write substantial amounts of prose and then add your medical textbook to the References section as a

non-specific or general reference

. It is too easy for a later editor to change the body text, and then nobody is sure which statements are backed up by which sources. Unlike many established scientific disciplines, medicine attracts controversy and opponents on even the most basic and commonly held facts.

There is no universal standard for formatting citations on Wikipedia, but the format should be consistent within any one article. Some editors format their citations by hand, for more control over the presentation. Most editors on biomedical topics prefer to use

citation templates such as {{Cite journal}}, {{Cite book}}, {{Cite web}}, {{Cite press release}}, or {{Cite news

}}. The now-deprecated alternative templates {{Cite doi}} and {{Cite pmid}} used to produce citations that did not match the above citation style.

Templated citations

Citations in the

Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals (URM) citation guidelines list up to six authors, followed by et al. if there are more than six.^[12]

Some editors prefer to expand the abbreviated journal name; others prefer concise standard abbreviations.

Abstracts of most medical journals are

Mozilla Firefox (2.0+), then Wouterstomp's bookmarklet can automate this step from the PubMed abstract page. Take care to check that all the fields are correctly populated, since the tool does not always work 100%. For books, enter the ISBN into Diberri's tool

. Multiple references to the same source citation can be achieved by ensuring the inline reference is named uniquely. Diberri's tool can format a reference with the PMID or ISBN as the name. An alternative is to use a Harvard-style reference: for example, name=Hedley2004.

In addition to the standard citation text, it is important to supply hyperlinks, which greatly assist

convenience links

to online editions of paper journals (however "Retrieved on" dates are needed on other websources).

A citation using {{cite journal}}:

{{cite journal |vauthors=Bannen RM, Suresh V, Phillips GN Jr, Wright SJ, Mitchell JC |title=Optimal design of thermally stable proteins |journal=Bioinformatics |volume=24 |issue=20 |pages=2339–2343 |year=2008 |pmid=18723523 |pmc=2562006 |doi=10.1093/bioinformatics/btn450 |url=//bioinformatics.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/24/20/2339 }}

produces:

• Bannen RM, Suresh V, Phillips GN Jr, Wright SJ, Mitchell JC (2008). "Optimal design of thermally stable proteins". Bioinformatics. 24 (20): 2339–2343.
  PMID 18723523
  .

The alternative {{vcite journal}}:

{{vcite journal |authors=Bannen RM, Suresh V, Phillips GN Jr, Wright SJ, Mitchell JC |title=Optimal design of thermally stable proteins |journal=Bioinformatics |volume=24 |issue=20 |pages=2339–2343 |year=2008 |pmid=18723523 |pmc=2562006 |doi=10.1093/bioinformatics/btn450 |url=//bioinformatics.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/24/20/2339 }}

produces:

• Bannen RM, Suresh V, Phillips GN Jr, Wright SJ, Mitchell JC. Optimal design of thermally stable proteins. Bioinformatics. 2008;24(20):2339–2343.
  PMC 2562006
  .

The date parameter should reflect the "Publication date" as given on PubMed or elsewhere, rather than a preprint e-pub date:

{{cite journal |vauthors=Meunier B, Robert A |title=Heme as trigger and target for trioxane-containing antimalarial drugs |journal=Acc Chem Res. |date=Nov 16, 2010 |volume=43 |issue=11 |pages=1444–1451 |type=Review |pmid=20804120 |doi=10.1021/ar100070k}}

produces:

• Meunier B, Robert A (Nov 16, 2010). "Heme as trigger and target for trioxane-containing antimalarial drugs". Acc Chem Res. (Review). 43 (11): 1444–1451.
  PMID 20804120
  .

Hand-coded citations

Even when hand-coding citations, there are still template tools to assist editors with making these links. If the abstract of a journal article is available on PubMed, use the {{

uniform resource locator (URL) to this text by hyperlinking the article title in the citation. If the full text is freely available on the journal's website and on PubMed Central, prefer to link the former as PubMed central's copy is often a pre-publication draft. When the source text is available in both HTML and PDF

, the former is preferred, as it is compatible with more browsers.

For example:

Levy R, Cooper P. [//www.mrw.interscience.wiley.com/cochrane/clsysrev/articles/CD001903/frame.html Ketogenic diet for epilepsy.] Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2003;(3):CD001903. {{doi|10.1002/14651858.CD001903}}. {{PMID|12917915}}.</ref>

produces the footnote

• Levy R, Cooper P. Ketogenic diet for epilepsy. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2003;(3):CD001903.
  PMID 12917915
  .

Navigation boxes

Main page:

WP:NAVBOX

Shortcut

• WP:MEDNAV

Suitable templates for navigation boxes can be found here:

• Medicine templates
• Drug templates

Navigational boxes should follow a standardized style. Navboxes are constructed using the hlist class to organise material into horizontal lists. For more information, see

piped links

when required.

Medical navboxes should be placed on appropriately specific articles and satisfy the general criteria found in

WP:NAVBOX. General navboxes such as {{Medicine}} should not be placed indiscriminately on all articles. Conversely, specific navboxes such as {{Bone, cartilage, and joint procedures}} should not be placed on general articles such as surgery. Do not insert meta or "index" navboxes that link only to other navboxes.^[13]

For drugs, footnotes may be manually added to indicate the regulatory status of a drug; for instance, one may wish to note that a drug is still in development, is only used in veterinary medicine, or has been withdrawn from the market. The recommended order of footnote symbols is: *, †, ‡, §. A standardised list can be included in drug navboxes by adding |below={{PharmNavFootnote}} Working examples may be seen in several navboxes, including {{Antiretroviral drug}} and {{Nucleic acid inhibitors}}.

Categories

Diseases or disorders or syndromes

Diseases/disorders/syndromes should be categorized within Category:Diseases and disorders by their ICD-11 code(s). These articles should not also be categorized by medical specialty or body part if they are properly categorized in a subcategory of Category:Diseases and disorders. If applicable, diseases/disorders/syndromes may also be categorized within subcategories of Category:Genetic disorders.

Drugs

Further information: Wikipedia:WikiProject Pharmacology/Categorization

Drugs should be categorized within Category:Drugs by target organ system based on ATC code. Drugs can also be categorized by mechanism of action in Category:Drugs by mechanism of action and by physical structure.

Symptoms or signs

Symptoms and signs should be categorized in subcategories of Category:Symptoms and Category:Medical signs, respectively. Symptom categorization should be based on ICD-11 code.

Medical tests

Articles about medical tests themselves should be categorized in subcategories of Category:Medical tests based on the type of sample tested (e.g. Category:Blood tests). Diagnostic imaging should be categorized into subcategories of Category:Medical imaging (e.g. Category:Radiography for X-ray based imaging). Articles about results of medical tests should be categorized by ICD-11 code in subcategories of Category:Abnormal clinical and laboratory findings (e.g. Hyperglycemia is located in Category:Abnormal clinical and laboratory findings for blood).

Anatomy

Articles about anatomy should be categorized within subcategories of Category:Organs and Category:Organ systems.

Medical specialties

Major specialties practiced within the field of medicine should each have their own

eponymous category within Category:Medical specialties

. Articles for medical specialties should be a member of its eponymous category.

People

People with a medical condition should only be categorized within subcategories of

guideline on categorizing people

.

Stubs

Stub articles may additionally be categorized according to the list at Wikipedia:WikiProject Medicine/Stub sorting.

Categorizing redirects

Main page: Wikipedia:Categorizing redirects

Please categorize redirects only if the redirect is for a significantly different alternative name, not minor variants on spelling, capitalization, or punctuation. Categorizing these redirects allows readers to find articles by browsing the categories, even if they only know one of the names for the condition.

Example:

Mallorca acne (redirect) are two names for the same condition. Both the article and the redirect include Category:Acneiform eruptions

.

Redirects that are categorized should be additionally tagged with {{

WPMED

}}, with the class set to Redirect and the importance either left blank or set to NA.

Redirects to minor variations should not be categorized and should not be tagged with {{

R from alternative capitalization}}, {{R from alternative punctuation}}, or {{R from plural

}}.

Images

Further information: Commons:Commons:Patient images and meta:Wikilegal/Copyright of Medical Imaging

In addition to the usual standards of image selection outlined by the Wikipedia:Image use policy and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Images, which cover image quality and pertinence, several other considerations apply to articles about medical conditions:

• Identifiable people: Although the Wikimedia Foundation does not require any special protection for people whose images are being used in medicine-related contexts, editors are encouraged to be especially cautious about associating living people with diseases. In general, identifiable images of people should be provided with the person's consent, and preferably this noted on the image's description (an example of an image with this is here). Where consent is not documented, good faith should be assumed. In choosing images of identifiable people with a medical condition, prefer images of people who are strongly associated with the condition (e.g., Terry Fox for osteosarcoma) or are engaged in a public activity associated with that disease (e.g., AIDS patients at an ACT UP event) when such images are available.
• Technical images: Highly technical images, such as of stained pathology slides, are appropriate for many articles. However, they are often not the most accessible images for the introduction. Consider placing simpler images in the lead and placing more technical images in a specific, relevant section with captions in plain English.
• Shock value: Some images of medical conditions or procedures disturb some readers, e.g., because of visible deformities or the presence of blood. Potentially disturbing images should not be used for their shock value, for decoration, or merely to add an image. A detailed caption that identifies specific features may simultaneously increase the educational value of the image and reduce the likelihood of disturbing readers. Placement in a highly relevant section, rather than in the introduction, is also likely to reduce the shock value to readers. Wikipedia:Offensive material offers additional advice.
• Sexual images: Many medicine-related articles include images of genitals or other body parts normally kept covered, and a significant fraction of articles are directly related to sexuality. In general, Wikipedia aspires to be a high-quality reference source, and thus follows the general patterns of other high-quality reference sources. Doing so also helps editors comply with the directive from the Wikimedia Foundation's board of trustees to follow the
  high heels on an otherwise naked woman or visible genitals in an image that is supposed to illustrate Navel), and use appropriate captions to maximize the educational value of the images. Wikipedia:WikiProject Sexology and sexuality/WIP-image-guidelines
  offers some additional advice.
• POV pushing: On occasion, disputes arise over the neutrality of image choices. For example, an editor may want to include a picture of a person urinating outdoors to tell the world that urinating outdoors is natural and appropriate. An editor who
  denies the existence of AIDS
  may oppose inclusion of an image of the HIV particle because they believe the virus does not exist. Other editors have promoted the inclusion of long-term survivors of normally deadly diseases to "give other patients hope". None of these are good reasons for choosing or deleting images. Images should be chosen and located because they illustrate specific concepts described in the text they are attached to.

See also

• Wikipedia:Identifying reliable sources (medicine)
• Wikipedia:Conflicts of interest (medicine)
• WP:WikiProject Disability/Style advice. An essay by editors involved with WikiProject Disability.

Footnotes

1. ^ This convention was documented at the now-defunct WikiProject Clinical medicine,[1] and was the result of several discussions in 2004.[2] [3] [4]
2. List of eponymously named diseases
   .
3. laundry lists
   by spammers; encyclopedic, sourced content such as "many generic brand names exist" is preferred.
4. ^ Examples of original research include counting Google or PubMed results, comparing the size or relevance of the varieties of English, and quoting from personal or professional experience.
5. ISBN 978-0-521-47154-1
   .
6. ^ See this RfC from January 2021 on the subject.
7. Templates for deletion: Medical
8. ^ Readability Formulas: 7 Reasons to Avoid Them and What to Do Instead
9. ^ DrugBank IDs follow the format APRDxxxxx, and may be found in the page's URL.
10. ^ HUGO IDs follow the format hgnc_id=xxxx, and may also be found in the page's URL.
11. C.W. Post Campus
    , B. Davis Schwartz Memorial Library. Retrieved 2008-04-16.
12. National Library of Medicine
    . Retrieved 2009-10-08.
13. ^ Consensus from February 2016 here