Dr. Geeta Nayyar on fighting misinformation in healthcare | HFMA 2026

National Harbor, Md. - Misinformation in healthcare isn’t slowing down, and Dr. Geeta Nayyar says it’s causing more problems.

Nayyar is the author of the book, “Dead Wrong: Diagnosing and Treating Healthcare's Misinformation Illness.” The chief medical officer of RadiantGraph, Nayyar moderated a discussion about misinformation in healthcare Monday during the Healthcare Financial Management Association’s annual conference at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center.

In a conversation with Chief Healthcare Executive® at the conference, Nayyar says misinformation is taking a toll, and it’s hurting both providers and patients.

“What we're seeing is that it is becoming more of a healthcare issue for us than it ever was before,” Nayyar says.

The healthcare industry is wrestling with patients swayed by misinformation and disinformation. Misinformation refers to sharing rumors or material that is inaccurate, while disinformation entails intentionally misleading others toward some type of gain.

Gayyar points to declines in vaccination rates and increased skepticism of vaccines as part of the fallout of misinformation.

“There seems to be an understanding in today's environment that mis- and disinformation are contributing to delayed care, patients not coming in for appointments, patients skipping the vaccine, skipping the mammogram, taking the supplement for just $9.99 from Dr. TikTok as the alternative. So, I think we have to acknowledge it,” she says.

Measuring the impact

But Nayyar also says it’s important to measure the impact of misinformation and disinformation in healthcare, including the financial cost.

“We have to actually start forming patient committees, physician committees, nursing committees, pharmacists,” Nayyar says.

“Every element of the workforce is affected by this,” she continues. “And we have to start understanding how it's affecting the balance sheet, whether it's delayed care, whether it is workforce issues, where individuals are feeling demoralized, and or without tools to actually combat mis and disinformation at the bedside.”

Health systems need to counter misinformation. Nayyar says that means trying to connect with patients that aren’t going to hospital or physician websites to get health information.

“We need to start quantifying it, and then accordingly start investing in strategies that help us find solutions,” Nayyar says. “So, whether that's that the hospital system or the physicians in a department need to start a TikTok channel, whether that's an omnichannel approach powered by AI and working with the CIO to make sure that we're getting patients' information at the point of care, helping with follow-up.

“But the reality is if people don't know what a mammogram is, they're not getting one, and that's the reality in both the fee for service model and a value based care model,” she says.

Doctors, nurses and pharmacists can all play valuable roles in countering misinformation. Nursing has consistently been ranked as the most trustworthy profession, and Nayyar says that pharmacists routinely are the ones people turn to with questions about medication.

Health systems should work to enlist physicians, nurses and pharmacists to help fight misinformation, and Nayyar says they should start with those who have genuine interest in social media.

But she also cautions that the duties can’t be yet another task added to staff. Health systems need to pay them for their time, and give them space and time to do it, Nayyar says.

Nayyar also says a health system’s chief medical officer and chief marketing officer should be working together to deal with misinformation and finding ways to offer sound medical information to their communities.

“The chief marketing officer and the chief medical officer need to partner. You need to find those clinical leaders that want to be on social media, and then help empower them, set up the channels for them, pay them for their time, set up committees that are constantly evaluating these tools,” Nayyar says.

And she says health systems should celebrate and recognize doctors and nurses who are using social media to connect with people, including those they may not normally reach.

Nayyar says health systems also need to make efforts to connect with members of minority groups, including Black and Brown Americans, who have well-earned reasons to be apprehensive about the medical establishment. And she says some strategies aren’t about technology.

“Being out in the community, religious institutions, the barbershop … a lot of those populations look to those community leaders for direction on what they should do with their health,” Nayyar says. “And so partnering in those ways is just as important.”

Analyzing social media

Health systems need to look at ways to keep their messaging relevant and to understand how AI is applied to amplify social media messaging.

Hospitals and health systems also need to take a closer look at conversations on social media in their regions.

“There are ways to do social media sentiment analysis, and you can actually predict a measles outbreak,” Nayyar says.

Providers can look and gauge conversations about vaccines, or increasing reluctance for vaccines. And Nayyar says there is value in understanding what influencers are doing.

"You'll pick up on the next fad that is actually factually incorrect, and then be able to deploy your workforce accordingly,” Nayyar says. “So, there are multiple tools out there that the misfits are using, and it's time for us, as healthcare leaders, to use them for good and not for bad.”

Reaching Gen Z

Providers will face challenges reaching younger people, including those in Gen Z, who aren’t turning to health systems when they are sick. Some younger Americans are fine with turning to direct-to-consumer outlets.

Health systems can help themselves by offering more convenience, including more telehealth options for patients who would prefer virtual care, Nayyar says.

“I think understanding that population, understanding how they get information, which is not in the traditional ways that we are used to getting them of our generation, but understanding that population and understanding convenience is king,” she says.

Health systems need to meet younger patients where they are, in order to counter misinformation and connect with an audience that may not necessarily be seeking them.

“This is the new healthcare consumer, and they will then be the healthcare consumer that is 65 plus,” Nayyar says. “So they're keeping us on our toes.”