As the spread of disinformation continues to negatively impact efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and cause distrust in vaccines, public health mitigation efforts and U.S. healthcare institutions, the American Medical Association (AMA) has adopted a new policy to address the issue.
The policy specifically takes aim at clinicians spreading health-related disinformation. It provides a comprehensive strategy aimed at stopping the spread of disinformation and protecting public health. The policy states that actions can be taken by the AMA, social medial companies, publishers, state licensing bodies, credentialing boards, state and specialty health professional societies, and by those who accredit continuing education. It was approved by at the 2022 annual meeting of the 2022 AMA House of Delegates meeting in Chicago.
“Physicians are a trusted source of information for patients and the public alike, but the spread of disinformation by a few has implications for the entire profession and causes harm," explained AMA President Gerald E. Harmon, MD, in a statement. "Physicians have an ethical and professional responsibility to share truthful information, correct misleading and inaccurate information, and direct people to reliable sources of health information. The AMA is committed to confronting disinformation, and we need to address the root of the problem. We must ensure that health professionals spreading disinformation aren’t able to use far-reaching platforms, often benefitting them financially, to disseminate dangerous health claims. While we are unlikely to undo the harms caused by disinformation campaigns during the COVID-19 pandemic, we can act now to help prevent the spread of disinformation in the future.”
This policy originally was recommended for referral back to committee for further discussion, but on the house floor, numerous physical delegates spoke out and said the policy is needed now after two years of conspiracy theories and misinformation during the pandemic.
"I am a public health officer for two counties in southern Indiana and I saw this misinformation issue firsthand. I need help now," said David Welsh, MD, MBA, general surgeon, past president of the Indiana State Medical Association and an AMA delegate from Indiana.
Even when there was clear, solid medical evidence that shows what the course of action should be during COVID, he found content push back from people citing disinformation as their source and why they resisted public health measures. He did not want the resolution to disappear into a committee for more discussion.
Some delegates wanted to referral to committee to hash out the definitions of what will be considered misinformation or disinformation. But the majority wanted to see it passed and let the AMA board fire out what is right and wrong when complaints come in.
"The time is now, we need this now," said Frank Dowling, MD, a member of the Medical Society of the State of New York delegation and psychiatrist. "Let's pass this and our board can go back and figure out who is a fraud trying to gain recognition through false information."
Other delegates echoed the immediate need for the AMA to make clinicians spreading false information accountable.
"In the ongoing pandemic, disinformation hurts our patients, they need serious, real information," said Kavita Arora, MD, delegate and direct or obstetrics and gynecology at the University of North Carolina.
When the resolution passed, there was applause across the House of Delegates.
AMA wants to take action against clinicians spreading bad medical information
The new policy outlines how disinformation claims made by health professionals can be directly linked to topics such as the promotion of unproven or disproven COVID-19 treatments, false claims of vaccine side effects, and public health guidance that is not evidence-based. While disinformation by health professionals has spread rampantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, the policy cites a Center for Countering Digital Hate study that found nearly two-thirds of the anti-vaccine social media posts (more than 812,000 individual posts) could be traced back to a mere 12 individuals, nicknamed the “Disinformation Dozen.” Given that financial gain can often be the reason for spreading disinformation, the report notes the need to address both the person’s ability to find an audience to deceive and their ability to benefit financially from that audience.
The policy provides an overview of the ways that disinformation is disseminated by health professionals, particularly through social media platforms. While the report notes that disinformation existed long before the internet and social media became commonplace, social media platforms have acted as a multiplier of disinformation spread—especially fueling the prevalence of disinformation about COVID-19. The report concludes that combating disinformation spread by health professionals, particularly over social media, will require a three-pronged approach. This includes:
• Deprioritizing disinformation in social media algorithms.
• Affirming and empowering the role of reactive fact-checking.
• Addressing any underlying incentive structure for health professionals spreading health-related disinformation.
How to combat disinformation on healthcare during the pandemic
Expanding upon AMA’s existing efforts to address disinformation, the new policy calls for the AMA to work with health professional societies and other relevant organizations to implement a comprehensive strategy that includes the following priorities:
• Maintain AMA as a trusted source of evidence-based information for physicians and patients,
• Ensure evidence-based medical and public health information is accessible by engaging with publishers, research institutions and media organizations to develop best practices around paywalls and preprints to improve access to evidence-based information and analysis,
• Address disinformation disseminated by health professionals via social media platforms and address the monetization of spreading disinformation on social media platforms.
• Educate health professionals and the public on how to recognize disinformation as well as how it spreads.
• Consider the role of health professional societies in serving as appropriate fact-checking entities for health-related information disseminated by various media platforms.
• Encourage continuing education to be available for health professionals who serve as fact-checker to help prevent the dissemination of health-related disinformation.
• Ensure licensing boards have the authority to take disciplinary action against health professionals for spreading health-related disinformation and affirms that all speech in which a health professional is utilizing their credentials is professional conduct and can be scrutinized by their licensing entity.
• Ensure specialty boards have the authority to take action against board certification for health professionals spreading health-related disinformation.
• Encourage state and local medical societies to engage in dispelling disinformation in their jurisdictions.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the AMA said it has led numerous efforts to bolster vaccine confidence, advocate for science and confront disinformation and misinformation. This has included urging the CEOs of six leading social media and e-commerce companies to remain vigilant against the proliferation of both purposeful disinformation and unintentional misinformation on their platforms.
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Dave Fornell has covered healthcare for more than 17 years, with a focus in cardiology and radiology. Fornell is a 5-time winner of a Jesse H. Neal Award, the most prestigious editorial honors in the field of specialized journalism. The wins included best technical content, best use of social media and best COVID-19 coverage. Fornell was also a three-time Neal finalist for best range of work by a single author. He produces more than 100 editorial videos each year, most of them interviews with key opinion leaders in medicine. He also writes technical articles, covers key trends, conducts video hospital site visits, and is very involved with social media. E-mail: dfornell@innovatehealthcare.com