Trusted health information should be a fundamental right
PIF TICK ambassador Dr Liz Murray is passionate about ensuring everyone has access to trusted health information. We caught up with her to chat about PIF TICK certification, the threat of online misinformation and why she believes we need to regulate health information.
Can you tell us a bit about your background in health information?
As a doctor I always took pride in ensuring I provided my patients with adequate information and support. Informed consent is not informed without adequate information and understanding, which is a huge part of good medical practice. I worked as a medical illustrator producing medical guidelines for some time and became meticulous about how easy it is to produce misleading information. I once found an error in an emergency guideline circulating online that could have had significant consequences which was a poignant reminder of how the smallest omission can have profound consequences when considering health information. After leaving a clinical role and moving into the work I do with the charity, we deliver a lot of health information online in various formats to provide support to anyone with any health condition – which is an enormous undertaking.
Why do you think trusted health information matters?
The slightest error or ambiguous wording can have profound consequences. People are needing to be more autonomous in their health care and navigating the healthcare system, which requires the availability of information. Health information should not be a luxury but a fundamental right to ensure health equity. As the online industry continues to grow at monumental speed, the availability of health information from non-professionals is also rapidly growing without regulation and thus a dangerous and alarming amount of misinformation online.
Your charity, Mortal And Strong, recently received its PIF TICK certification. What does this mean to you?
Personally I am committed to ensuring our charity becomes a gold standard model of health care and support, and with that being a responsible provider of health information. I not only want to know that our team are producing reliable information for the obvious reason of delivering the best care to our users, but also to emphasise to other organisations around us the importance being regulated. If we can not only provide trust in our users with our information, but simultaneously teach them the existence of PIF and online regulation, it might help them navigate other sources of online information more safely.
What are the biggest challenges facing UK health information producers today and how can we overcome them?
There are two very key challenges at present which urgently need addressing to improve patient safety and experience.
Firstly – AI generated content and a gross lack of legal regulation of health information. Individuals, organisations and companies are using Dr-Google or AI to produce information that is littered with inaccuracies that could have serious consequence to people’s lives. It is astonishing that this is not legally regulated yet. Doctors couldn’t practice medicine in their back garden or on the streets and so people should not be allowed to deliver this kind of service without regulation.
Secondly – the rise of health-advocates, influencers and celebrities sharing their story. Awareness of conditions and community support is absolutely important and why so many people are learning about their symptoms as well as a reduction in stigma of disease. However, a diagnosis is not a qualification and when these individuals are then progressing beyond sharing their personal experience into trying to "teach others" sharing medical information as content without any experience or training, this is extremely problematic. There needs to be a distinction, again with regulation, between sharing your personal story and making it clear what is your personal belief, and not being able to produce "health information" delivered to vulnerable people.
Finally, what does it mean to you to be the latest PIF TICK ambassador?
It is truly an honour and I feel grateful to have the opportunity to have a more proactive role in PIF to help improve the industry. I truly would love to see regulation becoming a mandatory part of health care. I feel so passionately that we need to continue utilising the immense potential in the online space for addressing health inequalities, health equity and improving autonomy in patients but done the right way and in a safe, regulated way. Being an ambassador for the PIF TICK provides me with a privileged opportunity of having a more active role in this, so thank you PIF.
About Dr Liz Murray
Dr Liz Murray BCA(h) is a doctor by profession and patient by experience. After ten years working as a medical doctor – predominantly in Emergency Medicine – Liz left clinical practice due to multiple major health complications. Drawing on her unique perspective as both a doctor and a patient, Liz founded and now serves as CEO of the health charity Mortal and Strong. She is also a passionate advocate for addressing health inequalities. Liz was awarded the British Citizen Award for her services to health and serves as an ambassador for several organisations committed to promoting health equity and improving the standard of care and support for people with all health conditions.