Medical misinformation: the doctor-patient disconnect

Physicians and patients must navigate challenges involving illness and finance when dealing with the U.S. health care system.

There is another growing challenge: medical misinformation and disinformation have become major factors in how doctors and patients relate to each other and to the science and art of healing.

This year, The Physicians Foundation published “The Effect of Misinformation and Disinformation on Physicians’ Ability to Provide Quality Care.” It was a survey of more than 1,000 doctors to analyze the effects of false claims that some people assert were facts. Inaccuracies — large and small, and whether by honest mistake, as in misinformation, or by deliberate intention, as in disinformation — are having ill effects on Americans’ health.

This video summarizing the findings is based on The Physicians Foundation study and Medical Economics’ coverage of it.