An analysis of Pharma Wikipedia disease pages. This looks at the common pharma disease pages on Wikipedia, including how often they are viewed and edited. It analyses the top editors of these disease pages that are of interest to Pharma companies. Editing disease pages by Pharma companies, in the right way, is a potentially lower risk route than prescription medicine pages. This is a useful analysis for anyone working in healthcare and interested in editing Wikipedia.

1. Pharma Wikipedia
DISEASE pages
An analysis
Gary Monk
Presentation includes
speaker notes on slides
14/5/2014

2. @garymonk
garywmonk
gary@garymonk.com
www.garymonk.com

4. Introduction
• Wikipedia is a top source of information
around medical products for patients, the
public and health care professionals
• The goal is to analyse the Wikipedia pages of
some of the main disease areas where
pharmaceutical companies are active
• Note: all analytics data sourced directly from
Wikipedia (all statistics up to 14/5/14)
– English language Wikipedia only

5. Average daily Wikipedia views by disease
Rank Disease Average Daily Views
1 Bipolar disorder 9080
2 Schizophrenia 8475
3 Crohns disease 8145
4 Multiple Sclerosis 7977
5 Diabetes 6086
6 HIV 4928
7 Hypertension 4819
8 Alzheimer's disease 4603
9 Multiple Myeloma 4301
10 ADHD 4117
11 COPD 3852
12 Rheumatoid Arthritis 3762
13 Influenza 3480
14 Anxiety 3460
15 Asthma 3213
16 Epilepsy 3147
17 Gastroesophageal reflux disease 2844
18 Breast Cancer 2496
19 Cardiovascular disease 2311
20 Depression 2287
21 Erectile Dysfunction 2183
22 Macular degeneration 1877
23 Overactive bladder 1877
24 Premature ejaculation 1661
25 Allergic rhinitis 1113
26 Hypercholesterolemia 908
27 Chronic Pain 386
Source Wikipedia
Diseases have
significantly high
page views, in
comparison the
number 1 viewed
Pharma Brand
ABILIFY has just
under 1000 views
per day

6. Average daily Wikipedia views by disease
Rank Disease Average Daily Views
1 Bipolar disorder 9080
2 Schizophrenia 8475
3 Crohns disease 8145
4 Multiple Sclerosis 7977
5 Diabetes 6086
6 HIV 4928
7 Hypertension 4819
8 Alzheimer's disease 4603
9 Multiple Myeloma 4301
10 ADHD 4117
11 COPD 3852
12 Rheumatoid Arthritis 3762
13 Influenza 3480
14 Anxiety 3460
15 Asthma 3213
16 Epilepsy 3147
17 Gastroesophageal reflux disease 2844
18 Breast Cancer 2496
19 Cardiovascular disease 2311
20 Depression 2287
Source Wikipedia
The Top 20
diseases (by page
views) were taken
for further
analysis

7. Average page edits per year
Source Wikipedia
Rank Disease Page edits per year
1 Bipolar disorder 570
2 Schizophrenia 566
3 Crohns disease 317
4 Multiple Sclerosis 397
5 Diabetes 542
6 HIV 348
7 Hypertension 335
8 Alzheimer's disease 565
9 Multiple Myeloma 94
10 ADHD 854
11 COPD 207
12 Rheumatoid Arthritis 189
13 Influenza 409
14 Anxiety 268
15 Asthma 543
16 Epilepsy 330
17 Gastroesophageal reflux disease 155
18 Breast Cancer 484
19 Cardiovascular disease 244
20 Depression 352
Disease pages are
edited very
frequently.
Contrast Pharma
Brand pages
edited usually 50-
100 times per
year. The outlier
is Multiple
Myeloma with
relatively high
page views yet
few edits

8. Page edits vs number of editors
Disease
Page edits
per year
Number
of editors
Editors/E
dits Index
Bipolar disorder 570 2407 4.2
Schizophrenia 566 2111 3.7
Crohns disease 317 1674 5.3
Multiple Sclerosis 397 1928 4.9
Diabetes 542 2973 5.5
HIV 348 1770 5.1
Hypertension 335 1785 5.3
Alzheimer's disease 565 2553 4.5
Multiple Myeloma 94 484 5.1
ADHD 854 3150 3.7
COPD 207 876 4.2
Rheumatoid Arthritis 189 1082 5.7
Influenza 409 2148 5.3
Anxiety 268 1731 6.5
Asthma 543 2666 4.9
Epilepsy 330 1682 5.1
Gastroesophageal reflux disease 155 845 5.5
Breast Cancer 484 2377 4.9
Cardiovascular disease 244 1226 5.0
Depression 352 1671 4.7
Source Wikipedia
Number of
editors added
for reference.
As expected the
number of
editors
correlates well
with the
number of edits

9. Total edits by Top 10 users of each of the
Top 20 diseases
Rank Disease Number of total edits made by the Top 10 editors
1 Bipolar disorder 317 242 179 138 135 91 73 67 63 60
2 Schizophrenia 579 453 425 391 169 95 85 79 61 53
3 Crohns disease 205 130 117 79 57 46 41 38 37 33
4 Multiple Sclerosis 710 369 190 101 95 44 42 42 39 37
5 Diabetes 497 241 191 109 59 52 50 47 43 42
6 HIV 249 214 108 74 66 55 55 47 34 29
7 Hypertension 284 204 131 89 58 55 29 28 27 23
8 Alzheimer's disease 675 554 352 105 101 100 82 67 58 57
9 Multiple Myeloma 148 23 21 17 17 16 10 9 8 8
10 ADHD 1030 383 372 278 228 161 134 128 125 115
11 COPD 587 181 55 45 45 26 26 22 19 13
12 Rheumatoid Arthritis 169 132 85 36 35 28 25 23 20 19
13 Influenza 811 280 113 72 49 38 33 23 23 21
14 Anxiety 114 62 45 37 35 29 28 24 22 20
15 Asthma 652 118 109 109 104 83 78 65 48 46
16 Epilepsy 556 214 100 87 44 27 23 21 20 20
17 GERD 163 106 30 25 18 16 14 11 11 10
18 Breast Cancer 318 192 96 80 77 77 65 58 52 41
19 Cardiovascular disease 208 62 31 25 25 18 18 16 15 12
20 Depression 282 64 45 40 35 33 28 22 21 21
Source Wikipedia
See next slide for
summary

10. A small number of users have a lot of
influence
• 133 unique users in Top 20 disease x Top 10
Editors
– 28 users editing more than 1 disease
– 11 users editing more than 2 diseases
– 5 users editing more than 3 diseases
– 2 users editing more than 4 diseases
• The top 5 editors have 38% of the entire Top
10 edits (see next slide)

11. The footprint of the Top 5 editors
Rank Disease Number of total edits made by the Top 10 editors
1 Bipolar disorder 317 242 179 138 135 91 73 67 63 60
2 Schizophrenia 579 453 425 391 169 95 85 79 61 53
3 Crohns disease 205 130 117 79 57 46 41 38 37 33
4 Multiple Sclerosis 710 369 190 101 95 44 42 42 39 37
5 Diabetes 497 241 191 109 59 52 50 47 43 42
6 HIV 249 214 108 74 66 55 55 47 34 29
7 Hypertension 284 204 131 89 58 55 29 28 27 23
8 Alzheimer's disease 675 554 352 105 101 100 82 67 58 57
9 Multiple Myeloma 148 23 21 17 17 16 10 9 8 8
10 ADHD 1030 383 372 278 228 161 134 128 125 115
11 COPD 587 181 55 45 45 26 26 22 19 13
12 Rheumatoid Arthritis 169 132 85 36 35 28 25 23 20 19
13 Influenza 811 280 113 72 49 38 33 23 23 21
14 Anxiety 114 62 45 37 35 29 28 24 22 20
15 Asthma 652 118 109 109 104 83 78 65 48 46
16 Epilepsy 556 214 100 87 44 27 23 21 20 20
17 GERD 163 106 30 25 18 16 14 11 11 10
18 Breast Cancer 318 192 96 80 77 77 65 58 52 41
19 Cardiovascular disease 208 62 31 25 25 18 18 16 15 12
20 Depression 282 64 45 40 35 33 28 22 21 21
Source Wikipedia
User
Diseases
edited
Jmh649 19
Jfdwolff 12
Orangemarlin 4
SandyGeorgia 4
Davidruben 4

12. The Power Editors
• Jmh649 & Jfdwolff dominate the editing
landscape
• Both are medical doctors

13. The Power Editors
• Jmh649 has edited 19 out of 20 of the most
viewed diseases
• Jmh649 has contributed 24% of all the edits
made by the Top 10 editors across the 20
diseases
• Jfdwolff has edited 12 out of 20 of the most
viewed diseases
• Jfdwolff has contributed 7% of all the edits made
by the Top 10 editors across the 20 diseases

14. Active editors
• When we consider editors active in the last
12 months (Top 10 editors across the 20
diseases)
– Only 37 out of 133 editors have been active
– Jmh649 & Jfdwolff are both active
– Jmh649 has edited 19 out of 19 of his historically
edited diseases
– Jfdwolff has edited 9 out of 12 of his historically
edited diseases

15. Key Learnings
• Disease pages are viewed 5-10 times more
than individual medicine brand pages
• 2 editors, both medical doctors dominate the
editing landscape
• Jmh649 is a Wikipedia editing machine but
this also highlights the need for more HCPs to
become keen editors of Wikipedia
• Only a small proportion of historical editors
remain active editors of these disease pages

16. @garymonk
garywmonk
gary@garymonk.com
www.garymonk.com
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