The data: Fundamentally, every US physician (99.9%) has encountered patients who’ve been influenced by misinformation in the past year, according to a recent survey of 1,000 practicing doctors by The Physicians Foundation and Medscape. And it’s not an isolated problem: 69% say they come across patients influenced by misinformation a moderate-to-great amount of the time, up from 61% in last year’s survey.

Digging into the details: Social media is the leading source of health misinformation.

• 48% of doctors cite it as the “most significant source of patient misinformation.”
• 85% say social media frequently contributes to patient misinformation, while 74% say the same of influencers.

Other sources doctors say cause health misinformation often or very often include:

• News coverage (58%)
• Search engines (57%)
• Consumer advertising (43%)
• AI chatbots (33%)
• Government health agencies (28%)

Why it matters: Physicians say they’re being forced to correct false health claims during already time-constrained appointments, often without adequate resources.

• 65% say medical misinformation has a major impact on their ability to provide quality care, up from 57% in 2025.
• 34% are not confident they have enough time to engage with patients who are dubious of modern medicine.
• 74% lack confidence that they have the necessary tools and support to engage skeptical patients, up from 63% last year.

What’s worse: Misinformation is eroding patients’ trust in medical guidance around vaccines, treatments, medications, and disease risks. For instance, 61% of US adults believe in anywhere from 1 to 3+ “divisive” health claims—many of which are debunked by medical experts, such as routine childhood vaccines being harmful or Tylenol use during pregnancy causing autism—per an April 2026 Edelman report. Further, doctors in the Physicians Foundation/Medscape survey say misinformation increases medication or treatment nonadherence (49%) and refusal of recommended care (45%) often or very often. It also frequently causes breakdowns in trust (34%) and conflict during visits (31%).

Implications for healthcare and pharma marketers: 91% of consumers say they’re at least a little concerned about health misinformation circulating online, per a September 2025 Jarrard survey, yet many still believe false claims and make poor health decisions based on them. This suggests that people aren’t equipped to recognize misinformation in real time, even though they’re concerned about its presence.

Deceptive health information can reinforce misconceptions about treatments and health services, causing patients to avoid, delay, or discontinue products that could benefit them. Pharma and health brands should ensure their product claims are precise, appropriately contextualized, and consistent across consumer ads, websites, social content, search results, and AI-accessible materials. They need to put credible information in front of consumers where they’re seeking health information.

Pharma and health brands can also ease clinicians’ burden by using patient questions, social listening, search trends, and clinician feedback to identify and address misconceptions with evidence-backed resources. Brands should separately acknowledge their products’ limitations and risks—and that they have limitations and risks and may not work for every person