Clinician-reported misinformation tracking guides pediatric education

A tool for tracking health misinformation heard by clinicians during patient encounters identified vaccines as the most common topic, according to research presented at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) 2026 National Conference & Exhibition in San Diego, California.¹^,² The tool was used at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), where vaccine misinformation accounted for 53.8% of 234 entries recorded from May 2025 to March 2026. Data from the tool informed new patient and clinician education at the hospital.²

The authors described health misinformation as a public health threat increasingly affecting pediatric clinical care.² The tracking system was developed to better understand how misinformation affects patients at the institution.²

"Looking at these trends allowed us to see in real-time what was worrying the families we care for and allowed us to give them the most up to date science on topics of interest," Katie Lockwood, MD, MEd, FAAP, a study author and pediatrician at CHOP, said in a press release. "Addressing pediatric health misinformation is vital to protecting the health of children, and as trusted messengers, children's hospitals have an obligation to respond."

REDCap survey tool captures pediatric health misinformation in clinical encounters

Investigators created a REDCap survey tracking tool and distributed it across CHOP clinical environments through fliers, emails, and a link in the electronic health record.² The survey asked clinicians what misinformation they heard, the category it fit, whether they felt prepared to address it, which strategies they used, and whether their approach worked.² The survey also collected respondent demographic information.²

A Qlik Sense dashboard provided real-time insights on survey entries.² A multidisciplinary team met monthly to review trends.² The team included a pediatrician, a neonatologist, public relations and marketing specialists, a data analyst, and a journalist, and it determined which topics called for new patient education content and internal clinician education.²

Trending topics from the tracker were used to develop educational content for Pediatric Health Chat, an external website, and for internal trainings at CHOP.²

Clinicians report high preparedness but limited success addressing misinformation

Trending keywords in the 234 entries included aluminum, acetaminophen, ADHD, and antibiotics.² Beyond vaccines, reported topics spanned categories including distrust in health care, supplements, miracle cures, and unnecessary interventions.²

On a scale of 1 to 100, respondents reported a median preparedness score of 77 for responding to misinformation from patients.² However, only 28% reported their approach worked.² Median preparedness scores increased with years of practice, while more years in practice was associated with lower chances of an approach working.²

The entries led to new patient education and public health social media content on 28 topics, including videos and blog posts.² The team also published seven corresponding opinion editorials in the Philadelphia Inquirer and started a weekly clinician email on vaccine communication skills, which had run for 10 weeks at the time of the abstract.²

The authors concluded a systematic approach to monitoring local misinformation trends can support a targeted response to the topics most likely to affect clinical care in a given patient community.² They suggested the CHOP system could serve as a model for other institutions.²

The abstract reports descriptive results from a single institution. It did not report the number of unique clinicians contributing entries or measure the effect of the resulting education content.

References

1. American Academy of Pediatrics. Monitoring online health misinformation can help create useful patient education content. Eurekalert. October 2, 2026. Accessed October 2, 2026. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1145254

2. Lockwood K, Parga-Belinkie JJ. Tracking pediatric health misinformation clinicians hear to build an institutional response. Abstract presented at: American Academy of Pediatrics 2026 National Conference & Exhibition; October 2-6, 2026; San Diego, CA.