HCPs Want Pharmas to Do More to Combat Health Misinformation: Report

A new report finds that physicians are increasingly spending their time with patients correcting mis- and disinformation, and they want more help from biopharma companies in heading off those health-focused inaccuracies. 

We. Communications’ recently released “Narrative Distortion” report surveyed 500 doctors in the U.S., U.K., Australia, Germany and India, who shared that rampant misinformation has changed the way they practice and prescribe. 

They overwhelmingly want pharmas to step in and step up: A whopping 95% of the physicians surveyed agreed that biopharma companies should be responsible for correcting misleading information in their therapeutic areas, but barely a third believe those companies are currently “very effective” at doing so. 

In the doctors’ eyes, the most effective ways for drugmakers to publicly combat misinformation include launching educational campaigns defending the scientific process, putting out joint statements with medical associations to correct inaccurate narratives, quickly issuing corrections as soon as those narratives arise and putting forth top leaders to defend their science in high-visibility forums like interviews and op-eds. 

HCPs are also looking for more support from biopharmas in their own efforts to correct misinformation. The respondents said that most valuable would be patient-facing materials they can hand out at consultations, clear talking points and evidence summaries to help guide their conversations about popular inaccuracies and access to transparent data and other health-focused fact-checking resources. 

Those efforts can have a significantly negative impact on a pharma company’s reputation among doctors—with a majority of those surveyed saying they see silence around misinformation as a sign of commercial self-interest and complicity—and the resulting corporate reputation can then be “somewhat” or “very” influential in close to 90% of physicians’ prescribing decisions. 

Almost 80% said they’d reduce prescriptions of a company’s treatments if they’ve failed to address harmful narratives in their therapeutic areas, while more than half said that if given the choice between two medication options, one made by a company that’s taking a public stand against misinformation and one from a more silent entity, they’d choose to prescribe the former. 

With those findings in mind, the report offers several strategies for pharmas to better combat misleading health information and support doctors: Move quickly to speak loudly and credibly against inaccurate narratives, prioritize empathy and trusted voices in those responses, and be proactive in monitoring narratives in a company’s therapeutic focus areas. 

“Trust is not rebuilt by waiting. It is rebuilt by showing up early, clearly and with conviction,” the report’s authors concluded. “In healthcare, narrative management is more than reputation management. It can shape treatment decisions, delay or accelerate access to care, or protect lives. That makes our work not only strategic, but urgent.” 

solli’s Final Thoughts 

If biopharma companies need any more reason to get involved in combating mis- and disinformation, let this direct call for help from doctors be it. 

When it comes to embedding such work into a pharma media strategy, the benefits of speaking up promptly and publicly against inaccurate and misleading health content are plenty. Staying silent is no longer a mark of neutrality, but can instead have a hugely negative impact on both corporate reputation and overall business. 

The bottom line (and key point for the literal bottom line) is that drugmakers must step up as trusted, influential voices in the healthcare ecosystem, aiding doctors in pushing back on false narratives and educating patients about the realities of their health and treatment options.