Sitting across from a nice man in a white coat, I said, “I know I’m not supposed to, but I Googled, and I found…”
The endocrinologist smiled and reassured me that he has nothing against patients getting information from the internet—as long as they chat it over with a doctor before making any health decisions.
More than half of adults use social media to get health and wellness information at least occasionally, and those numbers rise for young adults, Black and Hispanic adults, and parents of young children. More than half of social media users have acted on the health content they’ve consumed, and more than a third have shared health content from social with friends or family.
Misinformation is ripe throughout health and wellness content, and it can be hard for social media users to know what to trust. Research has found that when audiences encounter false medical information online, it decreases their trust in the entire healthcare system.
But instead of sitting back and chastising people for consuming health content on TikTok, a group of scientists and medical experts have decided to get in the game themselves. The Evidence Collective, a group of more than 25 subject matter experts in everything from infectious disease to health policy to nutrition, has a huge reach across social media where they translate medical information into plain language in the spaces people already spend time. By establishing themselves as trusted messengers, they are able to quickly respond to public health questions and fight back against misinformation.
“If doctors and scientists don’t show up on social media, inaccurate information will continue to dominate. Telling people to stop using social media won’t work – showing up in these spaces to spread accurate health information will,” said Dr. Kristen Panthagani, who recently led a workshop for News Creator Corps on where creators can find accurate health information to share with their audiences. Panthagani shares information via social channels and writes the newsletter You Can Know Things.
The group has compiled a handy document, “Your Starter Guide to Trustworthy Science Online,” that curates accurate sources of information across social platforms, newsletters, and websites. It’s easy to go down this list and add the accounts to your feed.
For creators, this can be a powerful resource of potential collaborators on health, science, and wellness topics. These experts are able to quickly respond to related news topics and can help you ensure your community is getting the most trustworthy information.
“Social media creates echo chambers and hyperniches, meaning sometimes accurate health information shared by doctors and scientists isn’t being shown to the audience who needs to see it the most. Collaborating with creators across disciplines can help break down these echo chambers so more people have access to reliable information,” Panthagani said.