Transcriber: Keira White Reviewer: Sebastian Betti
So, I don’t know about you guys, but over the past year and a half,
I’ve been watching a lot of Netflix.
Go ahead. Raise your hand if you’ve binge watched at least
three shows within the past year and a half.
Come on, guys, I know we just ate, but just try and get those hands up there.
Now, that’s pretty much exactly what I thought. Pretty much everyone.
Now, I have to admit personally that the action thriller genre,
is a personal favorite of me and my beautiful fiancée over there.
Now, have you guys seen the one about the billionaire supervillain,
who seeks to take over the entire world
by implanting microchips across the population?
No?
How about the one about a dictatorial government that
seeks to imprison the entire population,
by implementing a martial law type of system?
That doesn’t sound familiar, either?
Well, the truth is that these aren't actually shows on Netflix,
but rather legitimate stories being disseminated
every day on websites like Facebook.
Now, I know exactly what everyone in the audience is thinking right now.
What? I thought Facebook was a bastion of accurate scientific and medical knowledge!
Well, the truth is, misinformation online is nothing new
and people have been online, on sites like Facebook for years,
spreading misinformation about how vaccines cause autism
and other developmental disorders.
However, this problem has become even more magnified
in the last year and a half, due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Misinformation is more rampant than ever before,
so much so, that both the American Medical Association
and World Health Organization
have both written pieces detailing medical misinformation
and the massive threat it poses to public health.
However, no one is more aware of this issue than
current and future health care providers.
If I had a dollar for every time someone called
or texted me beginning a sentence with “I saw this on Facebook”,
I could probably come close to paying for an entire year’s worth
of medical school tuition.
And believe me, medical school is by no means cheap.
You can just Google the cost for yourself.
Now, I began writing this talk
over a year ago and since then so much has changed
as we are constantly learning new information about COVID-19.
And at the moment, while there is not enough evidence to make
a definitive statement on the origin of the virus,
there is more evidence that suggests the virus had a natural origin.
However, this can’t be stated as fact at the moment.
And the reason why I’m saying this is because it is fact.
And over the course of this pandemic,
I’ve watched facts get twisted and morphed,
so they fit a particular narrative or agenda.
I’ve also seen a large amount
of the United States population that’s been desperately searching for answers.
And yes, a lot of these people listen to talk radio,
watch cable news and are on sites like Facebook every day.
Now more than ever, there needs to be someone who can convey the facts
and only the facts, when it comes to accurate health information.
And I believe it’s time for current and future physicians to step up to the plate
and in the remainder of this talk,
I’ll explain why they are uniquely equipped to do so,
and what they can do to help stop the pandemic of medical misinformation.
Now, the first tool that makes physicians uniquely equipped
at addressing this pandemic,
is the trusting relationships they have with their patients.
Now, despite plummeting trust in elected officials and institutions,
the majority of Americans still report
having a mostly positive view of physicians.
Around 74 percent, in fact.
Now, I know what everyone in the audience is thinking right now, 74 percent?
I mean, it's not bad, but it's not great.
But there’s two things you have to keep in mind.
One: 74 percent,
it’s still a passing grade, even in medical school.
There were exams when I was elated with the 74 percent.
And number two is that
we are a country that does not trust anything at all
from this being staged,
to this being flat, we really do not trust anything
and it’s so hard to find trust in things these days.
That’s why it is so imperative,
for physicians to maintain that trusting relationship they have with their patients
because that trust can help facilitate a more compelling dialogue
of why certain medical information may be incorrect.
Trust is essential for effective communication,
and it’s been shown that increased trust between patient and physician,
not only increases adherence to treatment,
but also increases satisfaction with the care itself.
The truth is, patients don’t have a relationship with
the C.D.C or the W.H.O.
but they do have an established, trusting relationship
with their personal physician.
And it’s for this reason, I would encourage all physicians
to have the discussion with their patients about where they’re getting their
health information from and where they can find good, accurate sources.
And the second part, that makes physicians uniquely equipped to address this
pandemic of medical misinformation is their trained use of cautionary thinking.
Now, even before medical school, the vast number of medical students
have participated in scientific research,
where they’re reading scientific literature and analyzing data.
This becomes even more prevalent in medical school,
when assessing the validity of different sources
and learning how to analyze accurate data
is actually integrated into the medical school curriculum itself.
A physician is trained from day one
on how to practice using evidence based medicine
and I believe that this training,
combined with the trusting relationships they have with their patients
can facilitate a more compelling dialogue to help
patients stay away from medical misinformation.
Now, growing up, one of the most useful pieces of parenting advice
my mom has given me over the years,
is never trust your kid to the point where you think they could do no wrong.
And mind you, I was a very good kid growing up, for the most part.
And if this is the level of cautionary thinking that we should be using
for our own children, which I think it is,
we should be using considerably more,
for some Facebook article that we saw our old high school classmate post.
And while there are absolutely good places on the internet,
to find accurate health information like PubMed and JAMA,
I would encourage anyone listening and anyone
who is searching for health information online,
not just to take that information with a grain of salt,
but to approach it with the complete doubt and skepticism
as if your 17 year old or 18 year old had told you,
“Relax, Mom, Relax, Dad, I’m just going over to stay at a friend’s house
for a few hours”,
on the evening of their senior prom.
Now, up until this point I have discussed
why it’s physicians who are uniquely equipped
to help address this current pandemic of medical misinformation.
Now, I’m going to pivot
and talk about what they and other health care professionals can do
to avoid being part of the misinformation process.
Hospitals and health care systems
have had to rapidly expand their online policies for staff
within the past decade or so.
They’ve had to deal with such a rapidly changing landscape
regarding to what occurs online.
And while a lot of health systems have policies that talk about
boundary crossing with patients and how much online interaction is too much,
what’s often left out is how to address medical misinformation
and even more importantly, how to avoid being part of the spread.
It’s no surprise that a staggering amount of health care workers
use social media just like everyone else in society.
The number grows every day as more and more are building followings on
TikTok, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
And the problem isn’t that these individuals are using social media,
it’s that they’re not doing a good enough job separating their personal
and professional online personas.
Now, being a medical student from the state of Ohio,
I would be remiss if I didn’t bring up the semi-recent
House Health Committee meeting
where an Ohio physician claimed the coronavirus vaccine
made individuals magnetic.
That’s right, you heard me correctly. Magnetic.
As a physician, part of your responsibility is to present the facts
to the public based on the overwhelming evidence and data
that you have available to you at the time.
Now, medicine is a constantly evolving field
and what we believe today might change tomorrow, based on the discovery of
new technology and data, and that’s completely understandable.
But what isn’t acceptable is when you use your professional platform
to convey and to try and advance your personal agenda and views.
That is dangerous.
That has consequences. And that costs patient lives.
Now, growing up, one of my favorite movies was Spider-Man.
And of course, I’m talking about the one with Tobey Maguire,
who in my heart will always be the one true Spider-Man.
And as I’m sure many of you are aware,
one of the most famous quotes from that movie is
“With great power comes great responsibility”.
Having the doctor in front of one’s name gives them an immense amount of power.
Power in their profession, power through the trust they have with their patients.
It's imperative physicians use this power responsibly.
And now, more than ever, that means conveying oneself responsibly online.
For example, an individual might see a personal post a physician makes on, say,
Facebook and take it as medical gospel.
At this point, it spreads like wildfire and oftentimes those
spreading the information aren’t mal-intentioned themselves but
rather believe what they’re spreading has actual scientific, medical backing
because they see a physician or researcher agrees with it.
The truth is,
a lot of medical misinformation gets its legs from somewhere
and will oftentimes
use the language of physicians or researchers in order to give itself
the appearance of credibility.
If you're a physician or any health care worker, for that matter,
a simple “This is a personal belief, not a medical statement, not a medical opinion”
could have a huge impact
at decreasing the amount of language that drives medical misinformation.
And while I absolutely believe that there are individuals out there,
who are deliberately spreading misinformation for personal gain,
I also believe that there are individuals who have been misquoted, who have misspoke
or who have simply represented a personal idea in a professional context.
But for those individuals who are deliberately
and intentionally disregarding evidence based medicine
and intentionally spreading misinformation to advance their own personal agenda,
there must be a much more rapid
and united response between physicians and medical boards,
to condemn and hold these individuals accountable,
because even if one physician spreads medical misinformation,
it contributes to losing the public trust
that physicians have maintained for decades.
Trust. It’s this trust,
that not only allows physicians to effectively practice medicine
but also advocate for public health.
And when you combine this trust with
the cautionary thinking physicians are trained to use from day one,
it makes them uniquely equipped
to help deal with this pandemic of medical misinformation.
And at the same time, current and future health care providers
must stand behind evidence based medicine
and represent themselves responsibly online.
And for anyone listening to this talk, I encourage you
to have the discussion with your doctor about where you can get good,
accurate health information online.
Because if the last year and a half has taught us anything at all,
it’s that medical misinformation
is a true public health crisis
and has cost thousands and thousands of lives.
Medical misinformation is more rampant than ever before.
However, I believe if we all unite as a professional community,
hold each other accountable and are more careful
not to drag our personal views and agendas into professional practice.
I believe we can vastly undercut
the scientific facade that a large amount of medical misinformation uses
to spread it across the web.
Going into 2022, let’s all raise our hands right now
and make the vow that we will leave the crazy pandemic plotlines up to Netflix.
Thank you.
(Applause)