We are excited to announce that after long, detailed discussions in chat, meta, and comments:
The new site Medical Sciences has been proposed in Area 51!
It is designed to foster a community of experts: "professionals in medical and allied health fields, students of those professions, related academics, and others with a sound understanding of healthcare-related sciences."
This is exciting news for everyone - for a lot of reasons!
But first, it is critical to understand that
MedicalSciences.SE is NOT designed to replace or detract from Health SE.
In fact, by creating a community of medical science experts on Stack Exchange, more of them will be around and possibly participate in HealthSE.
FAQ about the new site:
But weren't we discussing reforming Health.SE into MedicalSciences.SE?
- After much deliberation, a number of us decided that Health.SE cannot be transformed adequately into the new site scope. This is partly because its 2.5 year history is so long and tortuous in scope and direction - new participants will be confused by the historical questions and Meta, and won't be able to navigate the site. BUT we don't want to destroy what has been done here by purging the history of Health.SE. Also, some people want to keep this site for basic level questions.
Why can't this community be fostered right here on Health.SE?
- That has been repeatedly tried, and has repeatedly failed. Health.SE simply does not foster a culture that attracts and retains experts and professionals. That's not an opinion, that's a reality of this site. Reasons can be discussed elsewhere.
Does that mean we're losing our current Health.SE participants?
- Those of us currently on Health.SE intend to continue contributing to Health.SE - and we hope more will join us (and/or return!)
Can I join the new site?
- Experts in the fields surrounding healthcare AND students in those fields, please join us! Help culture high-quality professional caliber discussions!
- Additionally, if you are a professional who wants to see Health.SE survive, consider it a way of encouraging more of your colleagues to join the SE community.
- If you have a question that is not professional level, keep it at Health.SE
Why experts?
Stack Exchange defines itself as being communities of experts.
The Stack Exchange "about" page: "Hundreds of communities built by narrowly focused groups of experts."
Area 51 instructions: "To attract experts, you need a site where people are asking very interesting and challenging questions, not the basic questions found on every other Q&A site. Your goal is to make it clear that this is a professional site."
Health.SE is drowning in "basic questions found on every other Q&A site" -and-
Health.SE is lacking in "very interesting and challenging questions."
Ask yourself: How many experts and expert-level questions do you see on Health.SE?
Do we really need experts?
- Health SE is dying. We've discussed it ad nauseam.
One primary reason is that we do NOT have enough subject experts to up/downvote wrong (inaccurate or inadequate) answers, fact-check, evaluate references, and answer questions themselves.
This is more important on Health.SE than ANY other site because it's about the health of human beings.
This is not a new idea.
- Two separate sites - Medical for professionals and Health for laypersons - were originally proposed when Health was in Area51... 3 years ago. At the time, I argued that without a separate Medical site for professionals, Health would have difficulty retaining professionals, and medical professionals would benefit from their own site. Creating MedicalSciences returns to that original proposal.
We welcome open discussion, and will continue adjusting this Meta FAQ as needed.
