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Rheumatologists Can & Should Help Combat Medical Misinformation

Kenneth G. Saag, MD, MSc  |  Issue: August 2022  |  

The Last Word

As a specialty society, we need to recognize that the geopolitical issues that affect us in a broad, societal way, such as medical misinformation and the related topic of fake news, are topics we must tackle. While a little outside our historic charge, the ACR is increasingly being asked to take appropriate stands on many social issues because they do affect the health of our patients. Perhaps the issue of our time is medical misinformation.

Dr. Saag

Kenneth G. Saag, MD, MSc, is a professor of medicine, holds the Anna Lois Water endowed chair and directs the Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology in the Department of Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He is the director of the UAB Comprehensive Arthritis, Musculoskeletal, Bone, and Autoimmunity Center. He is also the ACR’s 85th president.

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References

  1. Baron RJ, Ejnes YD. Physicians spreading misinformation on social media—do right and wrong answers still exist in medicine? N Engl J Med. 2022 May 18. Online ahead of print.
  2. Saag M. Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles: The unprecedented speed of COVID-19 science. Physiol Rev. 2022 Jul 1;102(3):1569–1577. doi: 10.1152/physrev.00010.2022. Epub 2022 Apr 21.
  3. Grant A. Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know. New York: Viking Penguin. 2021. https://adamgrant.net/book/think-again
  4. Tedeschi S. Unexpected closure. N Engl J Med. 2022 Jun 23;386(25):2359–2361.Epub 2022 Jun 18.

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