Page 121 - Complete First B2 (third edition) Student Book

#VerifyHealthcare and the Association
for Healthcare Social Media

What do you do when you your arm starts itching, your leg starts
randomly hurting or you're feeling lightheaded for no obvious reason?
A recent study has revealed that the first thing most people do is turn
to the internet

Despite common sense dictating it to be the best course of action, consulting a health professional isn’t most 0 \akiA people look
people’s first choice when they feel unwell. 1 Others simply want to ensure that seeking help is in fact fov ^
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necessary, so as not to put pressure on understaffed healthcare facilities and preferring instead to gather as oKlute
much information as possible before going to see a doctor.
People consult a number of sources of information made available by modern technology, such as online forums
or apps. 2 They’ve also been known to be life-saving in emergency situations. One example of this was
when an American tourist was trapped for 65 hours during the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, and managed to tend to
his head wound and leg fracture using information he found on an app on his phone, until he was rescued.

While some apps and online forums have served people well, others have been at the forefront of the healthcare
misinformation epidemic that is currently afflicting our society. Such harmful fake news is often to be
found in very accessible social media channels, such as YouTube. The popular video site has in fact been under
scrutiny recently , not only for allowing ads to run on videos sharing such content, thus allowing individuals
spreading misinformation to make a profit, but also because of its algorithm that recommends these videos after
a user has watched more reputable ones. YouTube is now taking action to correct this issue.
Savvy internet users will know to steer clear of these channels, and only trust information given by trained
physicians and health organisations. 4 One of these is that there have yet to be any clear standards with
regard to transparency. Why is this online doctor promoting this drug? Where do they work? Are they paid by a PDF from sachtienganhhanoi.com
pharmaceutical company to give such advice?
Another cause of misinformation is the unquestionable trust some internet users place in individuals who claim
to be trained and certified doctors, but in fact aren’t - a phenomenon which is more common than you might
think.| 5 Considering the difficulty this creates for ordinary people with busy lives, it is perhaps no surprise
that many make unfortunate decisions about their healthcare simply due to a lack of information.
To combat all these sources of health-related misinformation, Austin Chiang, who is currently the chief medical
social media officer at Jefferson Health in Philadelphia, has founded the Association for Healthcare Social Media
(AHSM), whose objective is to bring transparency to health-related advice online and educate the general public
in these matters. The hashtag which he started, #VerifyHealthcare, has already caused ripples in social media
circles by inviting a growing number of doctors to speak out online against inaccurate advice and information.
6 For example, some physicians simply may not know how to approach social media and turn it into a
force for good, while others may consider it a waste of time and prefer to communicate through more academic
channels. But in doing so, they might regrettably leave their knowledge out of reach for the general public.

A The vast majority of them are typically averse to attention online, fora number
of reasons. o
B Apps are disastrous from this point of view, and should be avoided as an Choose from the sentences
information source. (A-G) the one which fits each
C However, it is often unclear what steps the general public should take to verify gap (1 -6). There is one extra
such people’s professional qualifications. sentence which you do not
D The latter have been found to be as accurate at giving a diagnosis as phone lines need to use.
manned by health professionals.
E Some live in regions of the world where doingso is a remarkably expensive Work in pairs. Has the text
ordeal. changed your view of online
F Examples range from the promotion of unproven treatments for serious health advice?
diseases to encouragingpublic mistrust of medically trained professionals.
G Nevertheless,there are hidden dangers that go hand -in -hand with these
seemingly cautious approaches. Medical matters