this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2025
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I'm a 3rd year medical student and I've already been caught off-guard a few times by the WILD medical misinformation my patients talk about, and figured that I should probably get ahead of it so that I can have some kind of response prepared. (Or know what the hell they've OD'd on or taken that is interfering with their actual medications)

I'm setting up a dummy tablet with a new account that isn't tied to me in any reasonable way to collect medical misinformation from. I'm looking at adding tik tok, instagram, twitter, reddit, and facebook accounts to train the algorithms to show medical misinformation. Are there any other social media apps or websites I should add to scrape for medical misinformation?

Also, any pointers on which accounts to look for on those apps to get started? I have an instagram account for my artwork and one for sharing accurate medical information, but I've trained my personal algorithm to not show me all the complete bullshit for the sake of my blood pressure. (And I have never used tik tok before, so I have no goddamn clue how that app works)

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[–] Sylvartas@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 28 minutes ago* (last edited 24 minutes ago)

Also try looking up random medications names and see what comes up ? As a complete layman that is usually what I do when I (or a family member) am taking or about to take some new meds. Of course with a generalist scientific background, the best I can do is try to compare different sources and apply some critical thinking/common sense, but I assume a lot of people don't do that (and be fair, I don't always do it either). And/or trust the doctors who are sometimes incompetent self-important assholes (not generalizing at all, but I've heard and seen first hand my fair share of horror stories)

[–] reksas@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

ask your patients where they are getting their stuff from, that way you will also know what places are more popular than others.

[–] medgremlin@midwest.social 2 points 27 minutes ago

I do ask them, but some of the things they say/ask about are just so baffling that I'd like to know about it ahead of time so I know what to respond with or recommend instead. Also, it's kind of along the lines of needing to know all the slang terms for drugs so I know what they're talking about when they OD on something or take something that interferes with their actual medications.

[–] LordWiggle@lemmy.world 7 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Facebook, tiktok, insta. Influencer girls promoting their own products, mineral stones, etc. Groups with conservatives, old people, MAGA, right wing extremists, hippies, yoga guru's, basically any group with low IQ people who feel hurt and claim a monopoly on the truth. Truth social could be great too. And religious groups of course.

[–] medgremlin@midwest.social 2 points 25 minutes ago

Truth social is one I hadn't thought of. I should also look into getting on an emailing list from Goop.

[–] mtchristo@lemm.ee 8 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Just search any symptom and add to it "home remedies" what ever will come will probably include medical misinformation.

[–] medgremlin@midwest.social 2 points 25 minutes ago

That covers some things, but the algorithm feeds people such nonsense at such a high rate that it's hard to keep up with.

[–] jet@hackertalks.com 3 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

University press releases, they often are very far from what the actual research says

https://phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=1174

[–] medgremlin@midwest.social 3 points 26 minutes ago

Bookmarked on my personal accounts because then I'll have access to full text articles through my institutional subscription when I go digging. :)

[–] AmidFuror@fedia.io 24 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Search for health and they don't want you to know or doctors don't want you to know.

[–] medgremlin@midwest.social 2 points 20 minutes ago

That will be a good downtime activity, but I also want to know what the algorithms are shoveling.

[–] wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Not really the internet, but I remember Dr. Oz being a daytime TV show that was full of quackery delivered as though it was coming from an expert.

[–] medgremlin@midwest.social 2 points 22 minutes ago

Dr. Oz and Oprah are featured in Behind The Bastards for a reason. Oprah actually got a 7-episode mini-series.

[–] gedaliyah@lemmy.world 10 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

I wonder if there is a list of Joe Rogan guests or an AI summary of the episodes. Also, Snopes covers a lot and won't rot your brain.

[–] medgremlin@midwest.social 3 points 23 minutes ago

I'll be looking into free versions of Chat GPT and the like. And I like the idea of AI summaries of Joe Rogan because I don't think I could actually listen to him without having an actual aneurysm.

[–] ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org 44 points 22 hours ago (1 children)
[–] medgremlin@midwest.social 32 points 22 hours ago

It hurts my soul that this is actually a good addition.

[–] superkret@feddit.org 24 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) (1 children)

Be aware that when you seek out medical disinfo on social media, you don't just increase its visibility in your own feed, but in everyone else's as well.

[–] medgremlin@midwest.social 1 points 18 minutes ago

One account in the milieu isn't going to make that much of a difference.

[–] Firebirdie713@lemmy.blahaj.zone 15 points 22 hours ago
[–] Canopyflyer@lemmy.world 12 points 21 hours ago

My wife is a Rheumatologist. She actually had a patient attempt to use an article SHE WROTE to argue against her diagnosis. The article the patient was "citing" was not even applicable to the symptoms the patient presented.

[–] DaveyRocket@lemmy.world 8 points 20 hours ago

I got you.

Any pyramid scheme that has anything to do with food or health. Their books are troves of made-up shit. Sometimes they’ll say true things (i.e. highly processed foods are less nutritious than whole foods), but then tell you to eat highly processed food five times a day.

They’ll have several hour-long meetings where they talk about how the magic crystals, protein bar, or energy shake is changing their life.

Their websites are fucking whack-a-doodle. There’s usually one quack with an MD rubber-stamping, fabricating, and/or misrepresenting evidence.

[–] Salvia@lemmy.world 9 points 21 hours ago

Go on Facebook, look up and type any illness + cure

[–] Broadfern@lemmy.world 4 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) (1 children)

Dunno what type of tablet you’ve got but Apple News is pretty solidly loaded with medical fear mongering that’s sanewashed via being from interviews with “experts.”

Buzzfeed, Newsweek, HuffPost, etc. are your main name-brand culprits. Other magazines/websites also push this garbage but it’s a little more obvious.

Other key words across social media would probably be “nutritionist,” “coach,” “guru,” and other catchy terms that basically mean unlicensed. I’ve never used TikTok but when I was on Instagram years ago those were the biggest offenders.

[–] medgremlin@midwest.social 1 points 21 minutes ago

Signing up for emailing lists is probably a good place to start. I also accidentally subscribed to an RFK apologist Substack when it was recommending health-related writers to me.

[–] andros_rex@lemmy.world 8 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Dr Mercola is a fun one.

The Food Babe as well.

They both should have associated accounts across multiple social media sites.

[–] medgremlin@midwest.social 1 points 20 minutes ago

That's actually super helpful. I'll need a few "content creators" to seed the dummy account with.

[–] LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 20 hours ago

Not a doctor but I'd love this as well. I've seen various assorted noctors and nurses and other patients spout some shit that was so wildly off base I couldn't even imagine how this came about or was even believable in the slightest.

I remember the one time a really good nurse told me how I "seemed alright" because I was decently informed on my condition and asked appropriate questions and it's been in the back of my head ever since how she thought it was a noteworthy exception to the norm that she could somewhat trust me.

[–] fullofredgoo@lemmy.world 6 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

4chan comes to mind. /fit/ would probably have a bunch of BS for you to trawl, /ck/ will probably have dietary misinfo, maybe /sci/ as well.

[–] medgremlin@midwest.social 1 points 19 minutes ago

That will actually be helpful towards the weird stuff that men get into in addition to wholly unnecessary "hormone replacement therapy" (aka juicing on steroids)

[–] vk6flab@lemmy.radio 4 points 22 hours ago

Look for any common condition using any search engine and discover just how misinformed the global population really is.

I am an ICT professional with over 40 years experience and in my own field it's often obvious how a technical response sounds right but is in reality absolute bollocks.

I know from lived medical experience that the same is true for medicine. However, being outside my own field it's much harder to detect, even with quotes and citations.

[–] Gingerlegs@lemmy.world 3 points 21 hours ago
[–] thesohoriots@lemmy.world 3 points 21 hours ago

Any homeopathic group or moms advice group.

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 3 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

Just look up real medical issues and pick the opposite of what looks real.

The algorithms will take care of the rest because people who fall for it don't just look up their own conditions, they start down the rabbit hole of "all medicine is fake" because that's easier to rationalize than doctor's are only wrong with their condition.

That's why it's so dangerous, you don't have to seek it out. Those videos get high engagement so the algorithm shoves them down everyone's throat