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Close to 100% of U.S. doctors agree that misinformation and/or disinformation undermines patient care, according to a new survey from the Physicians Foundation. The Foundation polled over 1,000 U.S. physicians in late May 2025 to gauge doctors’ perspectives on information and patients’ health literacy.
Furthermore, over one-half of physicians believe that misinformation – and/or disinformation — significantly impacts the ability to deliver quality patient care.
The first graphic differentiates between “misinformation” and “disinformation,” where the latter is false or inaccurate information deliberately intended to mislead people.
Misinformation is somewhat more benign in that it’s the false or inaccurate information, but not purposefully meant to mislead.
The pace of change of this info-demic has increased in the last couple of years, with 9 in 10 U.S. physicians saying the incidence of medical mis- or dis-information has increased compared with 5 years ago.
And it’s rural doctors who feel this info-demic especially acutely compared with physician peers in cities and suburbs.
Here’s the split of perception of mis- and dis-information among rural physicians versus doctors practicing in urban and suburban settings:
- 38% of rural docs report encountering “a great deal” of mis- and/or dis-information from patients, compared with,
- 25% of urban physicians and
- 21% of suburban physicians.
Health Populi’s Hot Points: Physicians who choose to still practice medicine in the U.S. in 2025 face a mounting checklist of challenges in daily practice, from administrative and billing hassles to declining payment margins and technology upgrades that often eat into workflows and time to spend on face-to-face patient care.
Attending to mis- and dis-information among patients is yet another line item on doctors’ checklists to deal with in current practice, with rural physicians again feeling less confident in their patients’ ability to access solid, evidence-based health information online. That is,
- 54% of rural physicians not at all confident in patients’ knowing how to find online evidence-based health information compared with,
- 41% of urban physicians and
- 37% of suburban physicians.
How to deal? The Physicians Foundation prescription as stated in the report’s press release is to, “urge[s] continued efforts to empower both physicians and patients with tools and resources to navigate this evolving landscape, reinforcing the value of trust and communication in healthcare.”
Indeed, “trust” within patients’ and health citizens’ hearts lies first among their personal physicians, along with top marks for nurses and pharmacists when it comes to honestly and ethics in U.S. professions.
But there’s another source of trust for health care information clinicians should be able to count on in their local communities: the patient’s employer or workplace. Over the past few years, Edelman’s Trust Barometer has found growing then stable support by the workforce in their employers in terms of a trust source for information (health and other content). Rural areas in particular might have an oligopoly of a few employers (which may include the hyper-local health system or hospital, or community college). In these situations, the trusted community touchpoints (health, education, agriculture and coops, for example) can collaborate to bolster public health education and access for, say, vaccination clinics and health fairs. Big box stores such as Walmart can play a big role here, as well, with nurses and NPs on the front line of care perhaps visiting workplaces and spaces in their communities.
Ultimately, the info-demic of mis- and dis-information will not be solved alone by physicians spending more time with patients trying to persuade folks toward positive health messages and dissuading from negative ones. It will truly take the village of all working toward the common goal of good old fashioned public health for all.
The post U.S. Physicians Have to Deal with the Growing Info-Demic of Disinformation Meant to Mislead Patients appeared first on HealthPopuli.com.
