How does misinformation impact the work of clinicians? A doctor, a pharmacist, an NP and a pollster weigh in

A new survey has found that healthcare providers are spending the equivalent of nearly an entire day per week managing the impact of health misinformation.The survey, conducted by Leger and released by Toronto-based PR firm ChangeMakers, involved responses from 75 family doctors, nurses (including nurse practitioners) and pharmacists.At a launch event for ChangeMakers’s health division on Thursday, the firm hosted a panel in Toronto to discuss the results, featuring family physician Dr. Felix Klajner, clinical pharmacist Tamer Elias, primary care nurse practitioner Jessica Bawden and Leger senior vice-president Lisa Covens.Panellists agreed the internet has been a double-edged sword, given that clinicians now have to field more questions pertaining to misinformation.“I'm seeing [misinformation] more and more. People seem to get their medical information from the internet, and they come to me to question what I’m doing,” Dr. Klajner said“At one point we used to worry about a lack of information and how patients don't have access. But as Dr. Klajner just mentioned, the internet is just too much information,” said Elias, the pharmacist.The survey also found that 64% of healthcare providers are encountering patients refusing treatment based on misinformation at least once a week. “We definitely are seeing it. People are sometimes suspecting me of being in collusion with the drug companies even though that’s about the farthest thing from the truth, but you can't convince them,” said Dr. Klajner. “They also will refuse care because of perceived side effects.”As an example, Bawden shared the story of a patient in his 50s who had high cholesterol, despite being physically fit and a non-smoker and non-drinker.“The first line of therapy is statin, which is a medication that is known and proven and well understood in our community of medical scientists to reduce your risk heart attack and stroke by 30%,” she said. “He is vehemently opposed to taking a statin because of the propaganda around the fact that statins may lead to cognitive decline, or statins may increase your risk of diabetes.”With social media being a top concern, it’s not surprise that in the survey, healthcare providers felt that 18- to 26-year-olds were the most impacted by misinformation, followed by 27- to 43-year-olds. In addition, 97% of the healthcare providers said health misinformation was a major or moderate risk.The most frequently reported topic of misinformation involved immunizations, according to the survey was immunization, with 76% of survey respondents reporting that they’ve encountered this topic. Bawden, who works as an NP at a team-based family health clinic, brought up how as more parents forgo vaccination against measles, the disease has been making a comeback across Ontario and other jurisdictions.“It's a major, major problem. It's changing the way that we work every day,” she said. “We don't have a positive pressure isolation room in my clinic, even though we have 25,000 patients. If someone arrived with measles, you know, that would be it for everybody in the building.”Natural supplements was the second most common topic of misinformation, at 72%.“Patients tend to have this myth where if it's natural, it's therefore safer, and prescription meds are chemicals,” Elias said, also noting that natural supplements are subject to the same rigorous standards when it comes to safety testing compared to prescription drugs.The panellists also discussed strategies to combat health misinformation. The Leger survey found that even though social media is often the source of inaccurate or misleading health information, healthcare providers said they consider it to be the most helpful tool to combat misinformation. Elias says healthcare providers should do their research on which health influencers are producing accurate information and consider encouraging patients to follow their content instead of those peddling misinformation.“I have to kind of educate myself on who's an influencer in health that's given an accurate information. There are physicians, NPs and pharmacists who are very active on social media trying to put correct information. Being able to identify them and tell patients, ‘Hey, I really like this influencer. You should follow them. Their content is actually accurate,’ might open the door to for them to think outside the narrow mind,” he said.Dr. Klanjer also suggested that clinicians should consider taking CMEs on research methods so they can properly explain to patients what it means when something claims to be “clinically proven.”“There's a lot of physicians, believe it or not, are not trained in the scientific method because it's not what they do,” he said. “When I look at phrases like, ‘this has been clinically proven,’ or ‘clinically shown’ those are a red flag for me . . .. What does ‘clinically proven’ mean as opposed to ‘scientifically proven’? There’s a big difference.”

How does misinformation impact the work of clinicians? A doctor, a pharmacist, an NP and a pollster weigh in

Register for free access or login.

Related Topics

Business Topic