Will Physicians Lose Patience With Misinformed Patients?

Abraham Lincoln famously said that a man who represents himself has a fool for a client. What about patients who treat themselves? Are they fools, too? If so, will physicians suffer fools?

We’re getting answers in real time to both open questions as medical misinformation and disinformation become pervasive in the U.S. Watch this scene from this season of The Pitt when Dr. Santos, who doesn’t suffer fools, figures out that her jaundiced patient destroyed her liver from taking too much turmeric — a spice that online influencers convinced her would detox her body and prevent Alzheimer’s disease.

Yes, it’s fiction. But it’s art imitating life.

In December, I went to a panel discussion on the State of American Healthcare sponsored by the Health Care Council of Chicago. Our own David W. Johnson, founder and CEO of 4sight Health, was on the panel. So were several physicians who recounted how medical misinformation and disinformation were affecting their relationships with patients.

In one case, a cancer patient told his oncologist that he stopped taking Extra Strength Tylenol to manage his cancer pain because he was afraid of getting autism. In another, a patient refused to fill a prescription to manage her chronic illness because she accused her doctor of taking kickbacks from a drug company to prescribe a medication she didn’t really need.

The doctors on the panel are not alone. Earlier this month, the Physicians Foundation advocacy group released the results of a survey of more than 1,000 doctors on the impact that medical misinformation and disinformation is having on their ability to provide safe and effective care to their patients.

Eighty-six percent of the doctors said the incidence of medical misinformation and/or disinformation has risen compared with five years ago with 61% saying medical misinformation and/or disinformation was influencing their patients at least a moderate amount over the past year.

The problem is worse in rural areas, according to the survey. Thirty-eight percent of physicians practicing in rural markets said they’re facing “a great deal” of medical misinformation and/or disinformation from their patients. That’s compared with 25% and 21% of doctors practicing in urban and suburban markets, respectively.

At the moment, the surveyed physicians said they can deal with it. Ninety-seven percent said they were “somewhat,” “fairly” or “highly” confident that they can “identify and correct the misinformation and/or disinformation that patients bring to their appointments.” Only 10% said that they don’t have the “necessary tools and support to engage patients who are skeptical about modern medicine or science.”

Give it time. The anti-vax, conspiracy-minded medical quacks running our federal health agencies, led by RFK Jr., are force-feeding people a constant line of unsubstantiated health and medical horseshit. Online influencers are pushing unproven and potentially dangerous prevention and wellness supplements to a gullible public and getting paid to do it. One of whom may be our next U.S. Surgeon General!

Watch that Pitt clip again. Look at the expression on Dr. Santos’ face after the patient tells her about the turmeric. We’re going to see a lot more of that face before this is over.

Building better healthcare starts with trusting evidence-based, scientifically tested and medically proven health, medical, prevention and wellness information from licensed and trained clinicians.