FDA commissioner urges clinicians to join fight against medical misinformation

Califf warned that patients today are immersed in a "sea of misinformation without a compass." Without careful intervention by trusted clinicians, he added, this environment can lead patients to make poor health choices.

Since 2021, the vast majority of deaths of hospitalized COVID patients were in patients who chose not to get vaccinated, largely based on bad information they saw online.

"The suspicion about vaccination, of course, is a really big one which took a toll. Over 350,000 Americans most likely died from COVID who wouldn't have died had they just gotten a free vaccination," Califf said.

Bad or incorrect health information online has also led to a growing general mistrust in science and medicine. He said clinicians can help combat this by just reinforcing basic things with patients such as risk factor modification, exercising and taking prescribed medications.

FDA commissioner makes call for clinicians to get involved in their communities

Califf's message to clinicians is clear: the trusted voices of healthcare providers have the potential to counterbalance harmful misinformation, especially during direct patient interactions.

"For that 15 or 30 minutes you have with a patient, you’re the most trusted voice they will encounter," he said.

Part of the mistrust of medicine in recent years may in part be due to clinicians spending a lot of time during patient encounters focused on a computer screen to enter data into the electronic medical record, rather than looking at or talking directly to the patient.

Califf said there is great potential for artificial intelligence (AI) to support clinicians by reducing documentation time and potentially freeing them up more to engage patients directly while the AI acts as a clinical scribe during the encounter. Califf voiced optimism that AI might one day alleviate the pressures of extensive administrative tasks, although he cautioned against financial pressures that could push clinicians to increase patient volumes at the cost of quality care.

"This technology could emancipate and free the clinician to interact with people, which is I think why most of us went in the medicine, and it's what people are really hoping for," Califf explained.

He also urged clinicians not only to focus on their patients, but also to act as knowledgeable sources in community spaces, such as churches and schools. He said being a resource to the community where people know the clinician can go a long way to combatting misinformation.

Beyond individual interactions, Califf sees a role for the healthcare profession as a whole in promoting scientific expertise and reclaiming the public’s trust in medical knowledge.

"When you ask the public, the best way to counter misinformation is through direct human interaction. The problem is the misinformation purveyors can reach billions of people in just a minute. You've heard the old Mark Twain statement that a lie has gone halfway around the world before the truth gets out of bed in the morning," he said.

Distrust of medicine partly driving lower US life expectancy

Califf said America now has one of the lowest life expectancies among high-income countries in the world, a phenomenon he partly attributes to pervasive health misinformation and the country’s individualistic culture. He believes this is an opportune moment for clinicians to underscore the importance of expertise and evidence-based guidance.

He acknowledged that federal agencies like the FDA face limitations in combating misinformation due to legal and procedural constraints, which ties their hands in being able to launch effective counter campaigns to medical misinformation. "We can't win this battle. We're outgunned, so to speak," he said of the restrictions.

He contrasted the dry, technical language often required in official FDA statements with the engaging images of memes, compelling storytelling, emotional videos and other flashy techniques favored by misinformation purveyors on social media.

"If you want to get people's attention, you do not do it in a document with language that is technical and dry. The way to get to people is through emotive pictures, images and stories. We're very limited at FDA, but the medical profession is not limited. The profession can step up and I think make a big difference," Califf said.