Over-treatment is a significant issue in healthcare, and there is a growing trend of social media influencers encouraging inappropriate use of medical tests that could lead to over-diagnosis. It opens up important questions about what drives health seeking behaviour and where patients are getting their information and motivations from.
As we see trust in health professionals and the media decline, people are turning more to social media influencers for information. It is an unregulated wild west, where financial conflicts of interest are often not disclosed and evidence-free claims are posted as fact. The potential for harm to patients is significant.
In this episode of the Dental As Anything podcast I talk to Dr Brooke Nickel, an NHMRC Emerging Leader Research Fellow at the University of Sydney School of Public Health. Brooke is an expert in evidence-based healthcare communication and decision making, with a particular focus on the issue of overdiagnosis. She recently led a study reporting on how social media posts have the ability to influence over-diagnosis.
We talk about the importance of health literacy, how social media and influencers are shaping patient behaviours and our role in fighting back against misinformation in the public domain.
You can listen to the podcast here, and it is also available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts - don’t forget to follow/subscribe, and share with your friends.
In case you missed it, you can catch up with the previous episodes of the Dental As Anything podcast here and read news articles here.
Federal Election 2025
The Federal Election has now been called for 3 May, leaving just over 5 weeks to fight for measures to improve access to dental care. Join the campaign to Give Medicare Teeth by emailing your Member of Parliament and the candidates your seat and ask them to commit to making access to dental care a priority by funding dental care properly.
Find your electorate at the Australian Electoral Commission website here, then click on your electorate on the map below to find the candidates for your seat in the upcoming election. Email them or engage with them on social media to let them know it’s time to Give Medicare Teeth.
Note: Not all candidates have been announced yet, and more names will be added once they are known.
Read my article in The Australian today that turns up the heat to Give Medicare Teeth.
Share this post