Tuesday, October 31 • 11:30am – 1:00pm EST

This session will focus on attitudes and competencies that help individuals to navigate and evaluate health information from a wide range of sources. It will also discuss strategies of respectful, culturally humble engagement to build trust and strengthen information skills. David Kaufman will address how different social media platforms mediate the spread of misinformation and the cognitive consequences. The presentations will also characterize the social and cognitive dimensions that predispose individuals’ receptivity to specious health information. Catherine Arnott Smith will talk about real and imagined challenges of professional medical terminology for non-professional audiences, specifically in the wake of the CURES Act which mandates Open Notes. Technical terminology has been repeatedly shown to create confusion for a small but persistent subset of patients accessing their clinical documentation – which creates new vulnerabilities for those seeking “translations” online. Alla Keselman will discuss science literacy as a component of health literacy, with an emphasis on engagement strategies to strengthen trust in science and scientists as sources of reliable health information. The panel will conclude with a discussion about ways to strengthen the science and practice of health information literacy.