AI-Driven Health Misinformation: What Physicians Need to Know About Deepfakes and Patient Care
Whether it’s AI-generated “deepfake doctors” increasingly spreading misleading health information on social media or health-related TikTok videos featuring AI-generated content promoting dangerous or fictitious remedies and products (and generating millions of views), physicians today are living and working in an environment rife with AI-driven misinformation.
The Physicians Foundation’s 2025 Survey of America’s Physicians highlights the growing impact of health misinformation and disinformation on clinical care and the physician-patient relationship.
Key findings include:
- 86% of physicians report that medical misinformation/disinformation has increased over the past five years, with half describing a significant increase.
- 57% say misinformation/disinformation has significantly affected their ability to provide quality patient care.
- 61% report that patients were influenced by misinformation/disinformation to at least a moderate degree during the previous year.
- The problem appears particularly pronounced in rural settings: 38% of rural physicians report encountering “a great deal” of misinformation, compared with 25% of urban and 21% of suburban physicians.
- 40% of physicians have no confidence that their patients know how to find evidence-based health information online, with rural physicians expressing particularly high concern.
The findings underscore that misinformation is not simply an information-quality issue; it can affect clinical decision-making, adherence, timely care, and trust. Although most physicians feel equipped to identify and address misinformation during visits, the survey suggests a significant gap between clinicians’ ability to respond in the clinical setting and patients’ ability to evaluate health information independently outside it.
The Physicians Foundation calls for stronger tools and resources for both clinicians and patients, along with open, trust-based conversations that help physicians understand patients’ information sources and address inaccurate claims without undermining the therapeutic relationship.
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