The National Library of Medicine held its annual Virtual Symposium on Health Misinformation from April 4 – 6. As the conference title implies, presenters consistently shared and demonstrated the history, nature, and components of mis- and disinformation (coined “mis/dis” throughout the conference) as well as instruction methods to support patrons in de- and prebunking health related messages. Presenters also addressed the acknowledgement of malinformation on media platforms and its particularly harmful effects in BIPOC communities.

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) is one of 27 offices and departments of the National Institutes of Health and the world’s largest biomedical library. Responsible for the development and management of Pubmed via the Medline database and MedlinePlus – the premiere resource for trusted, easy to understand, consumer-based health information. They also offer several free training and CE opportunities for information professionals requiring credential maintenance through the Medical Library Association

Themes & Highlights

With presenters from the Surgeon General’s Office and the NLM to medical and health science librarians and other public health information professionals, the agenda was packed with content relevant to today’s health information climate. Here are just a few themes and highlights:

Education & Training – The conference kicked off with an introduction to Surgeon General’s Advisory on Building a Healthy Information Environment and the exploration of the Community Toolkit for Addressing Health Misinformation complete with teaching slides and engagement activities for various educational settings. The conversations continued with a discussion on Critical Cultural Literacy and the dangers of malinformation included in health information sources, the Multi-Regional Clinical Trials Center’s Clinical Research Glossary for plain language terminology descriptions, and a dialogue comparing the similarities between the 19th-century cholera epidemic and the COVID-19 pandemic relative to information dissemination.

Prebunking as a Skill – We’ve heard of debunking claims found in online sources, but how about prebunking as a form of inoculation against mis/dis/malinformation? During this conference, a particular focus was placed on gamification and visual communications to flatten the curve. From research on comics and art providing accurate information about viruses, pandemics, and vaccination to escape rooms, videos, and games to detect manipulation techniques in information sources including the introduction to a MisinfoDay hosted by the University of Washington, presenters offered a wide range of tools to help patrons forge through the breadth of health claims available today.

Final Comments

In addition to great content, the vFair virtual conference platform was excellent! Virtual conferences have their pros and cons of course, but this product made those cons a bit more manageable. With 30-minute breaks between sessions, three days of 11am – 5pm conference material was a lot easier to digest. I have officially added getting onto this conference agenda to my 2024 goals!