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Addressing Health Misinformation
By Thomas J. Bryant, ARM
President, Physicians Insurance
January 23, 2023
In my recent blog, I briefly mentioned misinformation as a factor in patients’ mistrust in the health care system. It’s a topic worthy of further discussion, as misinformation itself has consequences for patients and your practice. Misinformation can create false beliefs that can cause a patient to mistrust health care provider recommendations and avoid or delay care. This can have potentially dire health consequences for the patient and creates malpractice risk for the health care provider.
Misinformation refers to information that is inaccurate or misleading. Disinformation, a form of misinformation, refers to information that was deliberately created and disseminated with the intent to deceive, whether for financial gain, to discredit credible sources, or for other reasons. But much misinformation is believed and spread by people without malicious intent, people who are looking for answers and a sense of control in the face of uncertainty. This uncertainty can be caused by overwhelming, conflicting, or complex information, or a lack of information or solutions — all of which can be common with medical and public health issues.
Health misinformation is certainly not new. “Snake oil” and “cure-all” concoctions were peddled regularly in past centuries in this country. But how fast information can be disseminated today is a relatively new phenomenon. Social media in particular allows people to spread misinformation almost instantaneously, often before they consider the reliability of the source or the content. Social media content is designed to quickly capture attention and engagement; entertainment value is often prioritized over accuracy. It’s more difficult to provide complete information, especially on complex issues, in 280 characters or in a single 30-second video.
Unfortunately, it only takes brief exposure to plant seeds of doubt. And once that misinformation is planted, it can be difficult to root out. The erroneous linking of MMR vaccine to autism in a 1998 Lancet article has been retracted and debunked, yet that belief persists today.
A Priority Health Issue
It can feel daunting to try to combat the health misinformation to which your patients have been exposed. Fortunately, physicians are not alone in this battle. US Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy, MD, MBA, has made battling misinformation a priority. To prevent the spread of misinformation, he has even issued an advisory with strategies for health care professionals, individuals, technology platforms, media organizations, educators, researchers, and community members seeking to intervene.
Strategies for the Patient Encounter
Dr. Murthy’s advisory recommends clinicians counter misinformation in the patient encounter by listening with empathy, getting to know your patient’s beliefs and values, and respectfully correcting misinformation in a personalized way using language that is accessible to the patient.
Health misinformation is an ever-growing risk to your patients’ health and to the health of your practice, a risk that is beginning to be addressed on a national scale. The one-on-one encounter you have with your patients will always be a critical and effective opportunity; most patients look to physicians and nurses as of health information. Taking time to understand your patients’ experiences and beliefs and address misinformation can help minimize both your risk and theirs.
Read part one of this series on trust.
Physicians Insurance President Thomas J. Bryant, ARM, is a licensed Property, Casualty, Life, Accident, and Health broker in all six New England states and has been an adjunct clinical assistant professor in the School of Health Sciences at Bryant University since 2016. Most recently Tom developed a video presentation on malpractice basics for Harvard Medical School’s fourth-year students, and has participated in NEJM Resident 360 virtual panels on topics related to financial matters important to early-career physicians.
Mitigate risk to be prepared. For more information on how Physicians Insurance can support your practice and help you mitigate risk, visit www.piam.com or call 800.522.7426.
