ASH Clinical News ACN_5.3_web | Page 49

BACK of the BOOK The Medical Misinformation Wars “As is true with fake news in general, medical lies tend to spread further than truths on the internet – and they have very real repercussions. … Doctors and nurses frequently try to discourage their patients from turning to the internet for answers. And yet patients will continue to Google their symptoms and medications because the internet doesn’t require an appointment or a long wait, it is not rushed, it doesn’t judge, it doesn’t require a hefty co-pay and it often provides information that seems simple to understand. … To have any chance at winning the information war, physicians and researchers need to weave our science with stories. This is the only way to close the wedge that has opened up between medicine and the masses, and which is now being exploited by merchants of medical misinformation.” —Haider Warraich, MD, on the dangers of misleading medical news, in The New York Times