DOCTORS DIVERSIFY
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a public access channel to the KET network, had a change of name to Kentucky Health and is now produced by KET. If longevity is a measure of success, then this is due to the willingness of our physician colleagues who give freely of their time and expertise as guests. Judging by viewer comments and anecdotal comments from people in the community, we seem to be having our intended effect.
Looking towards the future, legacy mediums such as newspapers, radio and television aren’ t the go-to sources of information that they were in past years. A 2024 Pew Research Center News Platform Fact Sheet reports that 58 % of Americans prefer to get their news on a digital device, 32 % prefer TV, 6 % prefer radio and 4 % prefer print. Though dedicated news websites and news apps have supplanted the legacy media as preferred sites for news, 54 % of people are getting some news from social media and another 27 % from podcasts. 3
The change in where we source our information demands that we reconsider where and how we engage and inform the community. This will require coordinated and consistent messaging on multiple platforms, including podcasts for longer form presentations, and Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat for shorter, more focused content. While this may be seen as more branding than informing, it is important that we maintain our position as trusted sources of information by choosing multiple outlets.
A physician facile in shaping and delivering a message over multiple platforms will have an outsized impact on community health.
Pearson and Raeke note that a patient expects that their physician will behave in a manner that proffers a reassuring feeling of confidence and reliance in their intent. They further note that this trust is based on the presumption of physician competence, compassion, adherence to privacy and confidentiality, reliability and dependability and communication. Physicians need to look critically at how we are communicating with our patients and where these discussions are taking place.
The public space on which we must operate cannot be taken lightly. The imprimatur of the camera is real and as such we should do no harm when in front of it. The physician’ s purpose for being out front in public spaces is twofold: to educate the populace so that they will be more knowledgeable and thus fully engaged and participatory in their health, and to counter the false narratives that are sowing the seeds of medical mistrust. If Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz are doing it, we need someone with integrity doing it.
Dr. Tuckson is the host of Kentucky Health.
Now, more than ever, we need to be ahead of the messaging because a more insidious threat than health literacy awaits us, and that is medical mistrust. The potential impact of medical mistrust on health outcomes is huge. One need only look at the false claims surrounding vaccination and the July recurrence of measles, which as of this writing has already killed two U. S. children and one adult, none of whom had been vaccinated. State public health departments have noted that the true number of cases is underreported. In addition, thousands of people in Mexico( vaccination rates under 75 %) and Alberta, Canada( 2024 rate only 68 %) have also gotten measles.
The level of trust in physicians is in flux. Even though patients with internet access can find advice and opinions from disease specific patient groups, health care advocacy organizations, health care institutions, specialty medical societies and government agencies, many people still rank physicians as their primary source for medical information. As noted in a Gallop poll on physician trust,“ Communication remains a challenge, with 53 % of patients wanting better guidance on explaining symptoms.” We must be that source to countermand misinformation.
It is good for physicians to have either an MBA, or MPH, but now we may need a few with an MA in communication or marketing.
10 LOUISVILLE MEDICINE