TY - JOUR

T1 - "Ask a Doctor About Coronavirus"

T2 - How Physicians on Social Media Can Provide Valid Health Information During a Pandemic

AU - Furstrand, Dorthe

AU - Pihl, Andreas

AU - Orbe, Elif Bayram

AU - Kingod, Natasja

AU - Sondergaard, Jens

PY - 2021

Y1 - 2021

N2 - In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the information stream has overflowed with accurate information, misinformation, and constantly changing guidelines. There is a great need for guidance on the identification of trustworthy health information, and official channels are struggling to keep pace with this infodemic. Consequently, a Facebook group was created where volunteer medical physicians would answer laypeople's questions about the 2019 novel coronavirus. There is not much precedence in health care professional-driven Facebook groups, and the framework was thus developed continuously. We ended up with an approach without room for debate, which fostered a sense of calmness, trust, and safety among the questioners. Substantial moderator effort was needed to ensure high quality and consistency through collaboration among the presently >200 physicians participating in this group. At the time of writing, the group provides a much-needed service to >58,000 people in Denmark during this crisis.

AB - In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the information stream has overflowed with accurate information, misinformation, and constantly changing guidelines. There is a great need for guidance on the identification of trustworthy health information, and official channels are struggling to keep pace with this infodemic. Consequently, a Facebook group was created where volunteer medical physicians would answer laypeople's questions about the 2019 novel coronavirus. There is not much precedence in health care professional-driven Facebook groups, and the framework was thus developed continuously. We ended up with an approach without room for debate, which fostered a sense of calmness, trust, and safety among the questioners. Substantial moderator effort was needed to ensure high quality and consistency through collaboration among the presently >200 physicians participating in this group. At the time of writing, the group provides a much-needed service to >58,000 people in Denmark during this crisis.

KW - COVID-19

KW - coronavirus

KW - digital health literacy

KW - eHealth literacy

KW - Facebook

KW - framework

KW - health information

KW - health literacy

KW - health promotion

KW - infodemic

KW - infodemiology

KW - mental health

KW - misinformation

KW - pandemic

KW - patient-physician relationship

KW - public health

KW - social media

KW - trust

KW - web-based community

U2 - 10.2196/24586

DO - 10.2196/24586

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 33835935

VL - 23

JO - Journal of Medical Internet Research

JF - Journal of Medical Internet Research

SN - 1439-4456

IS - 4

M1 - 24586

ER -