By Michael Wong, JD (Founder/Executive Director, Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety)
Misinformation is a Patient Safety Issue
As the Executive Director for the Physician-Patient Alliance for Health & Safety, I oversee our blog. I have the responsibility on a weekly basis for writing and vetting articles submitted to us for publication.
Many people rely upon PPAHS for health information (our articles receive more than 10,000 views per month). As we are not a health news agency, we don’t specialize in discussing the latest breaking news – we leave that in the hands of others.
Rather, the PPAHS blog and website are filled with information and resources that may help improve patient safety and the quality of patient care. This information and resources are not “breaking news,” but rather a considered consolidation of best practices, clinical trial evidence, and experience. Understandably, then, the 10,000 plus website views that we receive each month are usually articles that were written months and even years ago. Hence, we must be extra diligent about citing misinformation.