The reCAPTCHA of medical education

This article focuses on what Luis von Ahn called the “twofer,” that is, a single solution that elegantly addresses two problems on a large scale. We describe two of von Ahn’s creations: reCAPTCHA, which validates a human web presence while also digitizing hard-to-read words, and Duolingo, which teaches new languages while translating the web. We then consider how this approach can be applied to medical education. Embedding Wikipedia-editing into educational settings is one such solution that could both improve the quality of health information available to the public while enhancing the learning of future health professionals.