How To Support The Lay Users Evaluations Of Medical Information On The Web?

In this paper we present a study on the credibility of lay users evaluations of health related web content. We investigate the differences between their approach and the approach of medical experts, analyse whether we can increase their accuracy using a simple support system, and explore the effectiveness of the wisdom of crowds approach. We find that a support system based on expert ratings is effective while relying on the wisdom of crowds can be risky. There is a clear positive bias in lay evaluations that is very difficult to correct. Moreover lay users perceive health related web-content differently than medical experts.