WIKISTIM.org: An On-Line Database of Published Neurostimulation Studies

Primary data reported in scientific publications provide guidance for improving patient care, expanding indications, identifying research gaps, educating patients, justifying reimbursement, and gaining regulatory approval. Finding and analyzing pertinent publications among the huge volume noted in databases such as PUBMED, however, costs time and effort. This situation demands innovative ways to locate citations of (and the possibility of abstracting data from) papers reporting primary findings.

We created WIKISTIM.org, a searchable easily navigated website, to meet this challenge in our field and devised a taxonomy of data categories specific for various stimulation targets for extracting and posting primary data. We included a discussion section unlimited by time or space to overcome limits posed by traditional letters to the editor.

Registrants can download single or multiple citations from search results or from the list of papers (sortable by author, title, publication, and year) into a single table. The downloadable data category lists are used to submit completed data entry sheets for upload and for evidence-based comparison across studies as well as for study design, manuscript preparation, and peer review. Registration for WIKISTIM access continues to grow as do the curated citation lists, which are updated monthly and are comprehensive for deep brain stimulation, dorsal root ganglion stimulation, gastric electric stimulation, spinal cord stimulation, and sacral nerve stimulation.

Most WIKISTIM entries are limited to citation information and links to published abstracts. As the number of completed datasheets and of stimulation target sections increase, the value of WIKISTIM will increase.