Battling Misinformation Regarding Thyroid in Social Media

Learning Objectives:

• 1. Develop a social media platform to disseminate reliable health care information. Health care professionals do not need to have a large social media presence to help guide the public toward accurate health information. They can be effective even if they have a small following or a private profile. Sharing quality information, even with a limited audience is helpful.
• 2. Manage misinformation with respectful scientific messaging. Health care professionals need to learn how to engage with the public when it comes to ideas and information which is inaccurate. The objective is to combat the misinformation and not the individual proposing the information.
• 3. Implement strategies to avoid online harassment and bullying when addressing inaccurate information. Providers need to learn effective strategies to avoid getting into a social media maelstrom that can backfire on them professionally. Online harassment and bullying of health care professionals has increased since the COVID-19 pandemic and one strategy is to adopt a group identity rather than using individual social media accounts to disseminate information.