About:Pharmacopedia

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Pharmacopedia is a free, open medical reference: an evolving catalog of what is known, claimed, and reported about medicines, problems, and health topics, written across multiple perspectives so that readers can see the same subject through more than one lens.

This page describes what Pharmacopedia is, who runs it, how it is written, and what it commits to. For the legal terms governing your use of the site, see the Terms of Use. For data handling, see the Privacy Policy.

What Pharmacopedia is

Pharmacopedia is a reference resource, not a clinical service. Each medicine page describes what the medicine is, how it is thought to work, what it is used for, what its effects and adverse effects are, and what readers from different perspectives have said about it. Each problem page describes a health condition, problem, or experience, and the medicines and approaches that are used to address it.

Pharmacopedia organizes content for multiple reader audiences (Clinician, Patient, Traditional, Researcher) and sources its claims across multiple knowledge traditions (pharma, plant, experiential, traditional). The intent is pluralism with discipline: every non-trivial claim takes an inline citation, and where a citation is not yet available, the page is marked rather than left implicit.

Pharmacopedia does not give medical advice. Nothing here is a substitute for a qualified clinician who knows your individual circumstances. If you have a medical question or emergency, consult a licensed clinician or call emergency services. For overdose or poisoning in the United States, call Poison Control at 1-800-222-1222.

Who operates Pharmacopedia

Pharmacopedia is operated by the Pharmacopedia Collective, a California nonprofit public benefit corporation (pending 501(c)(3) determination from the Internal Revenue Service). Until formal recognition is granted, the Collective operates under California law as an unincorporated nonprofit association.

The named data controller and editorial lead is Mark Elliott, MD (mark@pharmacopedia.wiki). Mark is a licensed physician; his role in Pharmacopedia is editorial and operational, not clinical-toward-readers. Reading Pharmacopedia does not create a doctor-patient relationship with him or with anyone else affiliated with the project.

Pharmacopedia is funded by Mark personally; donations are accepted only if operating costs exceed what he can self-fund. There are no paid tiers, no subscriptions, and no advertising. The full list of commitments about what Pharmacopedia will never do is at Pharmacopedia:Refusals.

How Pharmacopedia is written

Pharmacopedia content is produced by a team of AI assistants, invited human experts, and volunteer contributors, under Mark's editorial oversight.

The editorial workflow is propose-review-approve. All submitted content is proposed first; it is reviewed by a qualified human reviewer before it becomes visible to readers. At launch, Mark is the sole reviewer. As the project grows, additional reviewers will be brought in with their qualifications made public.

Every non-trivial claim takes an inline citation, in this priority order: primary literature, then FDA label or equivalent regulatory source, then meta-analysis or systematic review, then guideline, then established tertiary reference. Where no citation is yet available, the claim is marked ^{[citation needed]} rather than deleted, so the gap is visible and can be filled.

Pharmacopedia does not pretend to be a regulated medical authority. The adverse-experience reporting feature is a reader-experience aggregator, not a regulated pharmacovigilance program. The Refusals page enumerates the things this project commits never to do.

How to use Pharmacopedia

You can read all of Pharmacopedia without an account. Search for a medicine, a problem, or a topic; follow cross-links between related pages; and read the perspectives that interest you. Each page surfaces source citations inline so you can verify claims.

If you create an account, you can:

Submit proposed edits through the propose-review-approve workflow.
Complete assessments and save your responses to your profile.
Use Special:MyLifeStory to build a personal medical timeline (private to your account; never published).
Submit reader-experience reports on medicines you have taken (see Pharmacopedia:Adverse Event Reporting).

Your account at Pharmacopedia.wiki also works at Oyami, Trykl, and PubSci, the other surfaces operated by the Pharmacopedia Collective.

How to contribute

If you would like to contribute as an editor, reviewer, or content author, contact Mark at mark@pharmacopedia.wiki. Pharmacopedia is built by invitation and volunteer effort, not by open self-onboarding, because the propose-review-approve workflow needs human reviewers with verifiable qualifications.

If you would like to flag an error, a missing citation, or a substantive concern about a page, use the talk page for that page, or email mark@pharmacopedia.wiki.

What this is not

Pharmacopedia is not:

A clinical service, diagnostic tool, or prescribing platform.
A pharmacovigilance program registered with any health authority.
A peer-reviewed scientific journal. (For that, see PubSci, the Pharmacopedia Collective's open peer-review journal.)
A platform that takes commercial direction over content. See Pharmacopedia:Refusals.
A platform that sells, licenses, or shares user data with commercial entities. See Privacy Policy.