As a Pulmonary & Critical Care Physician who has a passion for finding digital technology solutions to our health care problems, as well as 5 years of experience helping healthtech companies in the SF Bay Area, I have evaluated many and led the adoption of several platforms in my practice. Through involvement with Health 2.0 SF, I have mentored founders with solutions that have the ability to re-shape the practice of Medicine. Below I share my observations on the tsunami of COVID-19 information we are deluged in.
Fortunately: scientists, epidemiologists, and physicians are not facing anything new when confronting the copious amount of misinformation people bring to them. People over the span of time, without credible background knowledge on a subject, have been prone to follow movements based on an erroneous understanding of causation vs correlation or fear-based propaganda that fits their political ideology. The epitome might be the Anti-Vaxxing crowd, many of whom are already lining up against any possible future Coronavirus vaccine. COVID-19 has brought upon an onslaught of media and social media activity: with the ability to spread helpful information on these channels has come an unprecedented manner to spread misinformation that at minimum confuses (what is fact vs opinion), often shapes (opinions and behaviors), and occasionally kills.
Already related to COVID-19 we have seen the home-remedy folks, conspiracy theorists, and racists rush to create fake news or propaganda to satisfy a fearful base. To counter this deluge of bad information, Twitter, Google and Facebook are launching campaigns within their platforms to fight it back; and even CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta has a new Podcast that has content to educate and combat against misinformation. As part of the health community, please be careful what you re-tweet or share: consider the source (CDC, WHO, local hospital medical leaders are reputable), do not under-analyze preliminary scientific (typically not peer-reviewed) data, and keep in mind that certain knowledge is not concrete, as scientists continue to unravel this disease. Slow down and fact check!
Healthtech founders, including ones I mentor, are facing an existential dilemma: push forward with their platform in a badly damaged economy with fewer VC and consumer dollars; or tailor their platform to help solve a need in our current pandemic, and hope the buy-in and funding will come.
For either approach, I describe the Quadruple Aim that leaders in hospital systems need from health technology.
