The Faculty of Public Health (FPH) and the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine (FPM) have jointly published a new Best Practice Paper - Tackling Health Misinformation, highlighting practical steps healthcare professionals can take to reduce the impact of health misinformation and support informed decision-making.
Health misinformation can undermine public trust in health and medicine, affecting decisions about vaccines, medicines, treatments and healthy behaviours. The new paper explores different forms of misinformation and outlines five key actions healthcare professionals can take:
- Build trust before misinformation spreads
- Detect misinformation early
- Use pre-bunking approaches
- Debunk misinformation effectively
- Use artificial intelligence responsibly
The paper also highlights why misinformation is increasingly recognised as a major public health challenge by organisations including the World Health Organization, the European Commission and the World Economic Forum.
While governments, regulators and technology companies all have an important role to play, the paper emphasises the unique contribution healthcare professionals can make through trusted communication with patients and communities.
Read the paper here.
