IS THERE A SINGLE SOLUTION?

An outright ban

Some solutions call to outright ban the spread of false medical information. This is, however, an almost impossible solution since science is not always black and white. To actually pass laws that forbid the spread of false medical information would seriously harm human rights and would be extremely hard to implement. A problem as multidisciplinary as this cannot be solved with something as simple as a ban, it requires a lot of different solutions from a lot of different disciplines. Because of this, an outright ban is not a good solution for this problem.

Multiple solutions

Education

The biggest problem of medical information disorder is that people believe it, and follow it’s advice. The simplest solution to prevent this is better education. If people are better educated about the risks of medical information disorder (as you are right now) they are less likely to follow the advice. This minimalizes the risks that medical information disorder causes.

Besides reducing the negative effects of medical misinformation disorder, education also reduces the spread of false information. Better educated people are more likely to spot false information and less likely to spread it. By reducing the effects and spread of false information education is one of the best solutions for medical information disorder.

Platform algorithms

Another possible solution for medical information disorder lies in the algorithms that allow it to spread so quickly. Currently, the algorithms in social media sites like Facebook and Twitter actively promote the most controversial and engaging pieces of information. Without any fact-checking, this makes false-information very popular as it is very controversial. By passing laws that edit these algorithms the spread of false information can be limited.

Media communication

Medical information disorder can exist because a lot of false information isn’t addressed until it is too late. To be able to quickly tell if something is proven or not, better communication between the media and scientific community is necessary. This solution is hard to implement, but by encouraging open-access journals (where you can easily read scientific articles for free) it should be easier for media to quickly check if something is scientifically proven, or not.

CONCLUSION

Medical information disorder is such a complex and multidisciplinary problem that there is not one solution (such as banning MID) to fix it. In order to reduce the risks, several solutions from several different disciplines have to be implemented. Education, regulating algorithms and improved media communication are all good places to start to reduce medical information disorder.