Equipping Health Professions Educators to Better Address Medical Misinformation

As part of a cooperative agreement with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Federal Award Identification Number [FAIN]: NU50CK000586), the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) began a strategic initiative in 2022 both to increase confidence in COVID-19 vaccines and to address medical misinformation and mistrust through education in health professions contexts. Specifically, the AAMC solicited proposals for integrating competency-based, interprofessional strategies to mitigate health misinformation into new or existing curricula. Five Health Professions Education Curricular Innovations subgrantees received support from the AAMC in 2022 and reflected on the implementation of their ideas in a series of meetings over several months. Subgrantees included the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo, the Maine Medical Center/Tufts University School of Medicine, and the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. This paper comprises insights from each of the teams and overarching observations regarding the challenges and opportunities involved with leveraging health professions education to address medical misinformation and improve patient health

Use of Twitter amplifiers by medical professionals to combat misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic

Social media is an important tool for disseminating accurate medical information and combating misinformation (ie, the spreading of false or inaccurate information) and disinformation (ie, spreading misinformation with the intent to deceive). The prolific rise of inaccurate information during a global pandemic is a pressing public health concern. In response to this phenomenon, health professional amplifiers such as IMPACT (Illinois Medical Professional Action Collaborative Team) have been created as a coordinated response to enhance public communication and advocacy around the COVID-19 pandemic

Empowering healthcare workers on social media to bolster trust in science and vaccination during the pandemic: Making IMPACT using a place-based approach

Background: Given widespread and concerted efforts to propagate health misinformation on social media, particularly centered around vaccination during the pandemic, many groups of clinicians and scientists organized on social media to tackle misinformation and promote vaccination using a national or international lens. While documenting the impact of such social media efforts, particularly at the community level, can be challenging, a more hyperlocal or place-based approach for social media campaigns could be effective at tackling misinformation and improving public health outcomes on a community level. Objective: To describe and document the effectiveness of a place-based strategy for a coordinated group of healthcare workers on social media from Chicago to tackle misinformation and improve vaccination rates in the communities they serve. Methods: The Illinois Medical Professionals Action Collaborative Team (IMPACT) was founded in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic with representatives from major academic teaching hospitals in Chicago (University of Chicago, Northwestern University, University of Illinois, Rush University) and community-based organizations. Through crowdsourcing on multiple social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) with a place-based approach, IMPACT engaged grassroots networks of thousands of Illinois healthcare workers and the public to identify gaps, needs, and viewpoints to improve local healthcare delivery during the pandemic. Results: To address vaccine misinformation, IMPACT created 8 myth debunking infographics and 14 informational vaccine infographics that have generated \u3e340K impressions and informed the development of vaccine education for the Chicago Public Libraries. IMPACT delivered 13 policy letters focusing on different topics (i.e. healthcare worker personal protective equipment, universal masking, vaccination) with \u3e4000 healthcare workers (HCWs) signatures collected through social media to policymakers, published over 50 op-eds on COVID-19 topics in high impact news outlets, and contributed to \u3e200 local and national news features. Using the crowdsourcing approach on IMPACT social media channels, IMPACT mobilized healthcare and lay volunteers to staff \u3e 400 vaccine events for \u3e 120,000 individuals, many in Chicago\u27s hardest-hit neighborhoods. The group\u27s recommendations have influenced public health awareness campaigns and initiatives, research, advocacy, and policy recommendations, and have been recognized with local and national awards. Conclusions: A coordinated group of healthcare workers on social media using a hyperlocal place-based approach can not only work together to address misinformation but can also collaborate to boost vaccination rates in their surrounding communities