Dr Deborah Cohen talks medicine, marketing and misinformation

Hosted by Fiona Scott, today’s podcast welcomes Dr Deborah Cohen. Dr Deborah Cohen is an award winning medically qualified broadcaster, journalist, editor and author who has worked across mainstream and academic print, digital, TV and radio. Deborah begins by introducing herself to the audience. She explains that she’s written a book called ‘Bad Influence: How the internet hijacked our health.’ Deborah tells us that the premise of the book is to get the reader to question whether what they’re seeing online is medicine, or is it marketing? Often there are techniques and tricks that are being used which we don’t understand as ‘evidence-based medicine.’ (The idea that the treatments you get, in the NHS for example, are based on robust medical evidence).  Fiona then asks Deborah why she decided to write the book. Deborah states initially, that she trained to be a doctor and worked on the BMJ (British Medical Journal) for about 12 years and she set up their investigative journalism. Deborah worked with Panorama, Dispatches, Channel 4 news, The Telegraph and as part of the international consortium of investigative journalists. Later, she decided to go freelance and was recruited by Newsnight to do some of their health and science content. In 2019, she was doing more investigative research but in 2020, Covid hit. Her editor realised they had someone on the team with a medical background and wanted to use this to their advantage. They asked her to be on the health team. Deborah recounts the time of panic, distress and uncertainty. She talks about the phenomenal pressure she faced and the rise in social media, mainly because people were stuck at home with nothing else to do. Then she was headhunted by ITV news to be their science editor. She talks about how burnt out she was but that it was a great experience. After deciding to leave, Deborah thought she would go back to doing documentaries. However, the market had totally changed. She notes how even the BBC where she had worked for years, wanted more ‘influencer’ type people reporting on quite heavy affairs. She came to a crossroads and had to decide what to do next and she realised she needed to understand social media better, especially since the internet is a place many are now going for their health information. She shares that the book started from a conversation she had with her cousin’s friend in her aunty’s garden about an AMH test. An (Anti Malarian Hormone Test) to see how fertile she was. Deborah said to her, is it really going to tell you that though? And the lady’s reply was, ‘well that's what it says on Insta.’ Deborah told her that fertility is much more complex than just AMH and there are many other factors involved. Deborah explained that if she was going to go to her GP about her fertility anyway then the test was redundant and was a waste of money. This struck Deborah as a real issue because it was being marketed as a fertility test, which really concerned her. Her friends were also getting information about HRT, ADHD and full body testing on social media, which she felt she had to take a closer look at. Deborah explains how this book took her on a really interesting journey to understanding the impact that social media can be having on our physical health as well as our mental health. She describes the book as a science book that tells a story. Her book has now been shortlisted for an award. Fiona then goes on to discuss with Deborah how algorithms can be damaging. Algorithms can’t ‘see’ the difference between good and bad; they just see interaction which leads to more of the same content. Interacting with bad messages leads to more bad messages. Fiona then asks Deborah if she believes there are any answers to tackling this issue. Deborah says that medical professionals need to be everywhere. Fiona also discusses with De Deborah about the misinformation spread online about weight loss jabs and how the healthcare profession is facing more challenges than ever before.  Dr Deborah goes on to talk about how social media has allowed damaging advertising to go directly from pharmaceutical companies to consumers now. This never used to be the case but now this can be so hard to regulate. She talks about how we used to always consider someone healthy until proven sick, whereas now it can be considered sick until proven healthy. Is it normal for us to continually be questioning what illnesses we may have? Dr Deborah also talks about the fearmongering that is caused by this and that companies are profiting from scaring consumers.  Fiona asks Dr Deborah if she thinks we are losing the ability to think critically about what we post on social media. Deborah says she doesn’t think it’s about thinking critically, she thinks it’s more about our lack of exposure to this level of information. For example, Americans are used to drug ads because they’ve grown up with them and a healthcare system that is privatised and commercialised. Whereas, in the UK, we are not used to it. The two go on to discuss the similarities in their fields and how medicine and journalism link.  Fiona then asks Dr Deborah what her plans are for next year. Dr Deborah shares that she still wants to do journalism and promote her book. She says how the book is a different experience than she’s had before. She’s really glad how well her book has landed and the reach it’s had all over the world and she wants this to continue. Fiona expresses that she feels Dr Deborah will be able to write another book connecting with likeminded healthcare professionals.  Deborah’s book is available at all bookshops. You can contact her via Instagram and LinkedIn. Her handles are DebCohen001.  To get in touch with Fiona and the Scott Media team, visit www.scottmedia.uk Join our free Facebook group at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/prtribe