Re: https://www.hifa.org/dgroups-rss/healthcare-misinformation-us
Dear Margaret,
It's good to hear from you and from WAME, the World Association of Medical Editors. A member of our HIFA Steering Group, Chris Zielinski, recently became President of WAME and I look forward to continued collaboration to improve the availability and use of reliable healthcare information.
Your message and linked paper raises an important issue: "Doctors are rarely disciplined for spreading misinformation". Only six in more than 3,100 proceedings were focused on public misinformation, while 21 were for spreading misinformation directly to patients.
The authors conclude: 'Spreading falsehoods to patients formed a basis for discipline 3 times as often as disseminating misinformation to the community, even though community-directed misinformation may pose greater harm overall. These findings shed light on important concerns within the system for professional regulation, including which offenses medical boards seem to prioritize and possible trade-offs in exercising enforcement discretion. Moreover, the study results have serious policy implications, suggesting that the professional licensure system under current patient-centered frameworks may be institutionally ill-suited to combat the diffuse, intractable, and largely public health–related harms arising from physician-spread misinformation.'
The way forward is not explored in the paper. Perhaps we can start to explore it here on HIFA?
While individual doctors and other health professionals spread dangerous misinformation with impunity, the same is true of celebrities and high-level politicians, including heads of state. And yet they continue to ignore the evidence, leading directly or indirectly to harm. What can be done to reduce deliberate misinformation from individuals who have so much influence?
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org
