The American Medical Association confirmed plans to launch a national campaign to combat health misinformation and “rebuild trust in medicine.”
getty
The American Medical Association confirmed plans to launch a national campaign to combat health misinformation and “rebuild trust in medicine.”
The campaign, which will be launched later this year, is called “Have You asked your Doctor?” and will be focused on “rebuilding trust in medicine, science, and physician expertise at a moment when all three are being tested,” AMA chief executive officer Dr. John Whyte said in a speech to the group’s policy-making House of Delegates this weekend in Chicago.
The AMA didn’t say what it was spending on the campaign. More details would be rolled out in the coming months.
The campaign comes amid a backdrop of vaccine skepticism fueled in part by the Trump administration and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in particular. Kennedy, a known vaccine skeptic, has clashed with physician groups over vaccine policy and other public health measures physicians say aren’t based on science or supported by peer-reviewed studies.
The AMA has already been vocal in its opposition to Trump administration changes in the vaccine schedule its member doctors say “put children at serious risk” and Whyte said the group “called out Health and Human Services for weakening the leadership of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and undermining essential evidence-based preventive care.”
Meanwhile, the AMA has also pushed “for greater accountability in AI as adoption continues to move faster than the safeguards needed to protect patients,” Whyte said. “We fought AI deepfakes and false medical claims that spread misinformation online.”
Whyte said the AMA’s ongoing and future efforts will be guided by a commitment to serve as the “leading and most trusted partner for physicians as they navigate the future of medicine.”
“Medicine is entering a new era,” Dr. Whyte said in his speech to delegates. “The forces reshaping health care are accelerating. Technology is changing how care is delivered. Trust in science and institutions are being tested.”
