France Sets New Rules for Doctor-Influencers to Combat Health Misinformation

The French National Council of the Order of Physicians (CNOM), in collaboration with YouTube, has established a groundbreaking set of guidelines aimed at regulating physicians who create digital content. This collaboration, introduced by CNOM President François Arnault, aims to balance the innovative use of social media for medical communication with the need to maintain ethical and trustworthy standards in the face of growing concerns about misinformation.

In recent years, social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and X (formerly Twitter) have seen increasing engagement from healthcare professionals, many of whom use these platforms to share medical knowledge, offer health advice, and educate the public. While these platforms present an incredible opportunity for physicians to reach vast audiences and improve public health communication, they also pose a challenge due to the ease with which misinformation can spread.

As Arnault stated, “New modes of communication offer physicians the opportunity to reach millions of people. This transformation presents both an opportunity and a challenge as the general public often navigates an environment where misinformation proliferates.” The new guidelines aim to address these challenges by setting clear ethical standards for physicians who are also influencers online, ensuring their content remains trustworthy, evidence-based, and responsible.

Ethical Standards and the Role of Social Media in Medicine

Doctors have long been held to high ethical standards when it comes to public communication, whether in traditional media outlets or public forums. The CNOM has stressed that the ethics of the medical profession must extend into the realm of social media. As with other forms of public discourse, the code of ethics for doctors stipulates that their statements must be communicated with caution and restraint. Doctors are expected to provide accurate, evidence-based information and avoid presenting unverified hypotheses as established facts.

However, given the distinct nature of social media platforms and the rising popularity of medical professionals as influencers, CNOM felt the need to create a specialized charter that adapts the traditional medical ethics to this new digital environment. While social media offers unprecedented opportunities to share knowledge and foster a global conversation about health, it also opens the door for the spread of inaccurate or misleading information that could harm public health. Therefore, CNOM partnered with YouTube to establish this charter, which applies not only to YouTube but to all major social media platforms.

The Charter’s Ten Guiding Principles

The CNOM and YouTube’s newly introduced charter consists of ten guiding principles that aim to improve the identification and dissemination of trustworthy medical content on social media. These principles are designed to help ensure that medical information shared online is accurate, ethical, and evidence-based, preventing misrepresentation of the medical profession and protecting the health of the public.

1. Professional Title Identification: The charter requires that all physicians who create content clearly identify their professional title, ensuring transparency and preventing individuals without proper medical qualifications from misleading the audience.
2. Evidence-Based Information: Physicians are encouraged to present information backed by credible scientific research, with clear citations, dates, and regular updates. Content must be based on current medical knowledge, and claims must be supported by solid evidence.
3. Prohibition of Personalized Medical Advice: Doctors are prohibited from offering personalized medical advice through social media platforms. Although general health advice is allowed, content creators must refrain from diagnosing or treating individual health conditions online, as this could lead to harmful outcomes.
4. Ban on Paid Promotion: The charter emphasizes that doctors must not engage in paid promotions or advertisements that aim to boost the visibility of their content, as this could lead to conflicts of interest and undermine the integrity of the medical advice provided.
5. No Self-Promotion: The principles prohibit doctors from using their social media platforms for self-promotion, including promoting their own medical practices or services. The goal is to prevent the commercialization of health advice, ensuring that content is created to educate and inform rather than to drive business.
6. No Endorsement of Health Products for Commercial Gain: Doctors are not permitted to endorse health-related products or services for personal profit, thereby safeguarding against potential conflicts of interest and promoting unbiased information.
7. Combating Misinformation: The charter calls for the creation of high-quality, evidence-based content. Medical influencers are encouraged to avoid the promotion of unverified medical practices, treatments, or therapies, as this could contribute to the spread of misinformation.
8. Transparency with Sponsorships: Physicians are expected to clearly disclose any sponsorships, partnerships, or financial interests when promoting products or services on their platforms. Transparency is crucial to maintaining trust with the audience.
9. Education and Public Health Promotion: The principles encourage doctors to use their online platforms to educate the public, raise awareness of critical health issues, and promote positive, evidence-based practices that contribute to public health.
10. Regular Review and Updating of Content: Given the rapidly evolving nature of medical knowledge, doctors are advised to regularly review and update their content to ensure that it remains current and in line with the latest scientific and medical advancements.

Addressing Misinformation and the Public Health Effort

As health misinformation continues to spread across social media platforms, the charter serves as a critical tool for combating these falsehoods. Audrey Perret, an experienced physician and one of the key drafters of the charter, emphasized that it is designed to provide rigorous medical information that is both accessible and scientifically sound. “This ethical framework will guide doctors with an online presence to provide rigorous medical information that is accessible to all. It is a way to combat misinformation and contributes to our public health efforts,” she said.

The new charter’s primary goal is to ensure that medical content shared online is based on credible evidence and communicated in a responsible manner. By providing clear guidelines for doctors, the charter seeks to minimize the risk of misleading or harmful information, which can have a significant impact on public health. By promoting high-quality, science-backed content, the charter helps to protect the public from the dangers of health misinformation that can be spread by those without proper medical qualifications.

Mobilizing Medical Professionals

The CNOM’s collaboration with YouTube is not just about setting guidelines but also about fostering a culture of collective responsibility among medical professionals. François Arnault emphasized the importance of encouraging as many doctors as possible to adopt these principles. “Our goal is for as many doctors creating content as possible to adopt it, and we hope that it will spark a collective awareness, among both social media platforms and physicians, reinforcing the need for scientific integrity in communication to protect public health,” he said.

The charter is also being integrated into medical education, ensuring that future doctors are aware of these principles and the ethical standards that apply to digital content creation. The charter will be distributed in medical schools, where many aspiring physicians are likely to become influencers in the future. This proactive approach ensures that medical professionals entering the digital space are well-equipped to meet the challenges of providing ethical, evidence-based content.

Regulatory Efforts and Global Influence

This initiative is part of a broader global effort to regulate medical content on social media. In 2023, France introduced the ‘Influencers Act,’ which bans advertising for certain practices like cosmetic surgery, aiming to curb the potential for harmful or misleading content related to these sensitive areas. YouTube, for its part, has also taken steps to address this issue by implementing a certification system for content created by healthcare institutions and professionals.

The CNOM’s charter represents a significant step forward in the regulation of medical content on social media, setting a global standard for how healthcare professionals should navigate the online space. This move reflects the increasing importance of ensuring that digital health information is trustworthy, scientifically sound, and delivered with integrity.

As social media continues to shape the way health information is shared and consumed, it is vital that medical professionals who engage in content creation do so with the highest standards of ethics and scientific rigor. The CNOM’s new charter, developed in collaboration with YouTube, is a landmark initiative that provides clear guidelines for physicians creating digital content, aiming to protect the public from misinformation while promoting responsible, evidence-based health communication. By fostering a culture of accountability and transparency, the charter helps to ensure that social media remains a powerful tool for public health without compromising the integrity of the medical profession.