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Do Doctors Get in Trouble for Spreading Misinformation?
(Thursday, November 14, 2024) Patients trust their doctors for medical information. Previously it has been argued that the rampant misinformation on the internet about medical topics can be countered by patients conferring with their doctors. But what happens when that very source, the doctor, spreads misinformation? Do the medical boards, whose job is to regulate the medical profession, penalize such doctors? Although misinformation has always been a concern, but the general impression is that such information comes from malicious sources or non-medically trained individuals. The internet has been blamed as the primary source of misinformation. However, in recent years, several doctors have been found to spread misinformation about the origin of infections, treatment options, and many other aspects of health that are based on anecdotes, and sometimes, plain lies. One would expect the medical boards to take action about such physicians since it is their responsibility to maintain medical ethics and licensure. A study comparing the number of physicians disciplined for spreading misinformation shows that medical boards rarely take action against physicians upon such complaints. A review of medical board action against physician-led Covid misinformation for 2-3 years starting 1 January 2020 was used as a test case. During the Covid pandemic, several doctors spread misinformation about the infection, its seriousness, the diagnostic tests, and the vaccines. These claims were proven to be untrue. A review of medical board disciplinary actions in the 5 most populous US states, Texas, California, Florida, New York, and Pennsylvania, during that time, showed that out of 3128 disciplinary actions, only 6 were for misinformation. The most common reasons for disciplinary actions were “physician negligence (1911 [28.7%]), problematic record-keeping (990 [14.9%]), and inappropriate prescribing (901 [13.5%]).” The frequency of disciplinary actions for any reasons related to COVID-19 care, even if not about misinformation, was also quite low (10 [0.2%]). Sanctions in misinformation actions tended to be relatively light. There are two ways to look at this data. One, the medical boards aren't particularly concerned about the dangers of physicians spreading falsehoods. Complaints made to the medical board are reviewed from the perspective of physicians and not regulatory guidance and hence lack the enforcement generally expected of regulatory bodies. A more pragmatic view is the misinformation is hard to characterize. It comes in various forms. It could be a personal opinion based on self-experience, could be based on a publication, or other sources. Even when there exists strong scientific evidence to the contrary, and alternate opinion is always able to co-exist. Also, it is very hard to prove the malicious intent of a physician, particularly when there are no direct financial links. The physician-patient interactions are sacred in the US regulations. The law gives physicians a very wide authority to make decisions about the welfare of their patients, both conventional and unconventional. That is the basis for the strong regulatory support for the ability of physicians to make off-label prescriptions to their patients. Misinformation exists in this gray area where the physicians peddling such information almost always frame it as their effort to help their patients make decisions. And this fine line is almost impossible for anyone to regulate. 
AUTHOR
Dr. Mukesh Kumar Founder & CEO, FDAMap Email: [email protected] Linkedin: Mukesh Kumar, PhD, RAC Instagram: mukeshkumarrac Twitter: @FDA_MAP Youtube: MukeshKumarFDAMap |
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