FPH/FPM joint seminar: Health Misinformation – What is it and why does it matter?

The Faculty of Public Health, in partnership with the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine, is launching a new two-part online seminar series bringing together senior leaders, clinicians, public health professionals and academics from across both faculties.

This series aims to move beyond abstract discussion and instead, provide a shared, evidence-based understanding of the scale, mechanisms, and real-world consequences of health misinformation—followed by a practical exploration of how different sectors can respond.

The first seminar, Setting the Scene: Health Misinformation – What is it and why does it matter?, is designed to establish a common evidence base before moving into focused case studies on tobacco and misinformation circulating within patient support groups.

This seminar will take place on Thursday, 19 March 2026 between 12:00pm - 1:00pm.

In this seminar:

• Sophie Braznell will present her work on tackling disinformation from the tobacco industry.

• Sophie Randall will speak on misinformation through AI and her role as Director of the Patient Information Forum (PIF).

• Emma Doble will share insights from her three decades of lived experience with type 1 diabetes and her leadership in patient partnership at the BMJ.

Sophie Braznell

Sophie is a Research Associate and the Research Coordinator for the Tobacco Control Research Group at the University of Bath. 

She has previously worked in the health and social care sector. Her academic background includes an undergraduate in human biology and forensic science, as well as a PhD studying tobacco industry approaches to harm reduction science and whether these approaches help or hinder public health. She has acquired extensive knowledge on heated tobacco products and tobacco industry science. If you are interested her research in this area, you can find out more via her profile: https://researchportal.bath.ac.uk/en/persons/sophie-braznell

Sophie Randall

Sophie is Director of the Patient Information Forum (PIF) – the independent voice of quality health information. PIF represents more than 300 cross-sector organisations, including national patient groups, NHS trusts and the private sector. PIF operates the PIF TICK, the trust mark for health information. Sophie joined PIF in 2018.

She was previously Managing Director of Oyster Healthcare Communications, a specialist health communications agency. Sophie originally trained as a journalist, specialising in public health.

Emma Doble

Emma Doble has lived with type 1 diabetes for over 30 years. She is the Patient Partnership Editor at the British Medical Journal (BMJ) where she leads on all of the patient partnership work across the journal and company. Emma also is the founder of CEEHealth, an organisation which guides, supports and facilitates patient partnership and involvement across healthcare.

Over the past 15 years, Emma has become an internationally recognised patient advocate for diabetes. She has worked with many organisations including the Scottish Government, World Health Organisation (WHO), Breakthrough T1D UK and Cochrane on patient partnership and co-production. In 2025, Emma won a Made with Patients award at the Patient Engagement Open Forum (PEOF) for her work in leading patient partnership at BMJ.