Field Notice on Medical Forward Skepticism
The message arrived in the family group. It may be accurate. It may not be. Reading it carefully takes less time than the discussion that follows.
Field Notice: Medical Forward Skepticism Incident Summary and Procedural Guidance
The Incident
A message arrives in a family communication group. The message concerns a medical treatment, a home remedy, or an advisory regarding symptoms. The message includes a claim. The message may be accurate.
Someone reads it carefully.
Background
Useful information and rumor arrive in the same font, from the same relatives, with the same level of urgency. A government advisory and a claim about steam inhalation curing a respiratory virus are formatted identically in a messaging application. Distinguishing one from the other requires either trust in the sender or independent verification, and neither is consistently available.
Medical forward skepticism is the practice of reading the message carefully rather than acting on it immediately. It is a reasonable response to an unreasonable information environment.
Consequence One
Medical forward skepticism adds one extra decision to a routine that previously did not require decisions about whether the information circulating in one's family group meets basic standards of accuracy. The decision is now routine. It is expected of the person known to have checked things before.
Consequence Two
The new decision creates screenshots, notes, and messages that must be managed. The message is screenshot and sent to someone who might know. That person responds with a separate message. The separate message may also need to be checked.
Consequence Three
The supporting paperwork outlives the problem. The screenshot of the original message remains in the camera roll. It is shown to a doctor three weeks later. The doctor has seen the message before.
The Governing Rule
Private anxiety becomes procedure when more than one person starts coordinating around it. The message is forwarded with a note saying please verify before acting, which is a way of passing the problem to the next person while also demonstrating appropriate caution.
Status
The message has been verified. The verification is not trusted.