OUWB faculty on ‘personal mission’ to fight misinformation in health care
An OUWB faculty and Beaumont Health doctor is on a personal mission to help physicians fight misinformation about health care in the media and on social media.
Asha Shajahan, M.D., associate professor, OUWB, and medical director of Community Health, Beaumont Hospital, Grosse Pointe, says what she calls an “infodemic” regarding health care information has been magnified by the COVID-19 pandemic.
To fight the prevalence of misinformation regarding health care, Shajahan has been writing op-eds, doing media interviews, and participating in town halls to answer questions and clarify info taken out of context.
She also was part of the team that released “MisinfoRx: A Toolkit for Healthcare Providers” — a comprehensive overview of the mechanics of medical misinformation and strategies for addressing patient-held medical misinformation in clinical settings
“Misinformation has proven to be deadly,” says Shajahan.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the impact of medical misinformation. It has caused people to get sick and even die. It’s caused people to question vaccination and science.”
(Only partial stories are posted here with hopes to provide a brief overview and introduction to my most recent work. The full version of this story may be found on the OUWB website here.)
