Building First-Year Medical Students’ Skills in Finding, Evaluating, and Visualizing Health Information Through a “Debunking Medical Myths” Curricular Module

Abstract

To provide an online service learning opportunity for medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic, medical faculty and librarians developed and implemented a “Debunking Medical Myths” module in which students learned to search for emerging medical literature, evaluate evidence, and use that evidence to create an infographics debunking a COVID-19-related myth for a non-medical audience. The resultant infographics are visually appealing and designed to make complex health information easy to understand. The module was well-received by students, who demonstrated a nuanced understanding of the use of infographics to convey health information, and students’ work was evaluated highly by community members.

Current issues and status of mis/disinformation in the health library context: a rapid literature review

“…Libraries were reportedly responding to challenges by pivoting to new ways to meet their users' needs (Yu & Mani, 2020). Although there is a wealth of research around public and academic libraries in dealing with mis/disinformation (Auberry, 2018;De Paor & Heravi, 2020;Makhoul et al, 2021;Revez & Corujo, 2021;Young et al, 2021), there is little to no information around the issues and status of mis/disinformation in the health sciences library context (Akers et al, 2022;Kumar et al, 2022;Sharma et al, 2022).…”

Development and Implementation of a Bioinfographic Assignment in Second-Semester Biochemistry: Metabolic Pathways beyond the Classroom

“…7 Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of conveying accurate scientific information to the public. 8,9 A number of pedagogical articles have highlighted using infographics as an educational tool in a classroom setting. 10,5,11,2,12,13,3,14 However, most of these assignments were incorporated into interdisciplinary courses or foundational courses, such as organic, green, and analytical chemistry.…”

“…However, it is only within the past five years or so that the focus has shifted from using infographics to improve information dissemination and understanding to using the preparation of the infographic itself as a learning tool. − Scientific infographics have become a popular way of displaying complex information, including via the popular Compound Interest website . Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of conveying accurate scientific information to the public. , …”