Developing effective digital health communicators via a mass communications curricular thread for medical students: a quantitative survey

Abstract Background Access to and understanding of reliable health information is essential for informed decision-making. However, misinformation is widespread, leaving patients at risk for health misperceptions. Doctors are well-positioned to counter misinformation and are increasingly utilizing social media in their professional role. Yet, like other topics in medical humanities, there is minimal education in mass communication during medical training. Medical students often do not know existing guidelines and ~ 30% self-report having posted unprofessional content already. Methods We created a seven-hour mass communications curricular thread delivered in five optional sessions and evaluated medical students’ self-reported abilities, understanding and interest in mass communications before, immediately after, and six months after sessions, at the University of Minnesota. Topics include social media use, identifying misinformation, working with journalists, legislative advocacy, and meeting expert doctor communicators. Students completed pre- and post-session surveys that used 5-point modified Likert scale questions to assess students’ media use, comfort, interest, perceived importance, and self-reported abilities in medical mass communications. Responses were compared pre- and post-session using Wilcoxon signed-rank tests and longitudinally using Wilcoxon rank-sum or Kruskal-Wallis tests. Results From August 2020 to January 2023 there were 1,500 third- and fourth year medical student enrollments, with 830 participants completing at least one survey. Most students used social media personally (97.7%) and many professionally (31.4%). Yet, they signaled low familiarity with mass communication fundamentals. After each session, students showed a significant gain in comfort and self-reported ability in targeted skills. These gains persisted in several areas six months post-session completion. Students expressed significantly greater comfort engaging in social media professionally, and for three of four sessions, greater likelihood of using mass communication in their future practice. Conclusions Medical students are engaging in mass communication both personally and professionally. This study showed that our curricular thread improved students’ comfort and interest in public engagement, and improved students’ perception of their own basic mass communication skills. Further studies assessing actual behavior are necessary to determine if integrating training in creating, interpreting and using mass communication into medical education strengthens future clinicians’ ability to disseminate effective high quality health information.