"Ask a Doctor About Coronavirus": How Physicians on Social Media Can Provide Valid Health Information During a Pandemic

Dorthe Furstrand, Andreas Pihl, Elif Bayram Orbe, Natasja Kingod, Jens Søndergaard

7 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the information stream has overflowed with accurate information, misinformation, and constantly changing guidelines. There is a great need for guidance on the identification of trustworthy health information, and official channels are struggling to keep pace with this infodemic. Consequently, a Facebook group was created where volunteer medical physicians would answer laypeople's questions about the 2019 novel coronavirus. There is not much precedence in health care professional-driven Facebook groups, and the framework was thus developed continuously. We ended up with an approach without room for debate, which fostered a sense of calmness, trust, and safety among the questioners. Substantial moderator effort was needed to ensure high quality and consistency through collaboration among the presently >200 physicians participating in this group. At the time of writing, the group provides a much-needed service to >58,000 people in Denmark during this crisis.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere24586
JournalJournal of Medical Internet Research
Volume23
Issue number4
Pages (from-to)e24586
ISSN1439-4456
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 20 Apr 2021

Keywords

  • COVID-19
  • Coronavirus
  • Digital health literacy
  • EHealth literacy
  • Facebook
  • Framework
  • Health information
  • Health literacy
  • Health promotion
  • Infodemic
  • Infodemiology
  • Mental health
  • Misinformation
  • Pandemic
  • Patient-physician relationship
  • Public health
  • Social media
  • Trust
  • Web-based community

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