VIDEO: How physicians can use social media to combat medical misinformation

Physicians can use social media to combat medical misinformation that spreads through it, according to a speaker at the Osteopathic Medical Education Conference.

Owais Durrani, DO, an emergency medicine physician at Memorial Hermann Health System in Houston, gave a presentation on social media and medical misinformation at the American Osteopathic Association’s annual conference.

Durrani told Healio the current landscape of medical misinformation can be widespread and scary for physicians.

“I think the role of social media is kind of magnifying this,” Durrani said. “Traditionally, we were like ‘Okay, we could ignore what’s going on online ... and most of it’s not going to impact us.’ But that couldn’t be further from the truth in 2024.”

Misinformation is not new — snake oil salesmen, fad diets and magic pills, for example, have all served as staples of the past — but social media allows it to spread quickly and easily, so it causes harm before the media or medical community can correct the misconceptions, he said. And that’s where physicians come into play.

“We need to be aware of things that are trending in our communities,” Durrani said. “The Surgeon General actually last year released a report on misinformation that one of the prescriptions —if you will —for physicians was engaging in these spaces. I think that's what our role is here: we establish ourselves in these spaces, whether it's you as an individual or your clinic, or your hospital system, and put out fact-based information.”

Reference:

• Durrani O. How social media can help you save lives. Presented at: OMED; Sept. 20-22, 2024; San Antonio, TX.