The aim of the conference is to help people think critically about health claims and build participants’ ability to assess the trustworthiness of research evidence and as a result, make informed decisions; whether it is in relation to health policy and practice or to inform individual health choices.

Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly TD, who will give an opening address at the conference, says;

“Along with this pandemic, we have seen an infodemic. There has been an overload of information, a lot of which has been unreliable. We have also seen examples of this in relation to the use of vaccines and on unproven medicines. This has exposed people and populations to the risk of using health interventions that are harmful or not using those known to be of benefit. As a result, this conference comes at a crucial point in terms of dispelling myths and ensuring people know how to discern fact from fiction.”

Keynote speaker, Journalist and entrepreneur, CEO and co-founder of Kinzen, Mark Little, will address the evolution of misinformation over the past decade and talk about strategies to ‘flatten the curve’ of what the World Health Organisation has called the ‘infodemic’ emerging around COVID.

This will be followed by Dr Eileen Culloty of Dublin City University’s Institute for Future Media and Journalism. Dr Culloty’s address on Covid-19 and healthcare disinformation will cover everything from Covid-19 conspiracy theories and why anti-vaccine beliefs are more common among the over-65s, to the machinations of the ongoing ‘infodemic’ and the idea of ‘the truth sandwich’.

Dr Gillian Murphy of the School of Applied Psychology at University College Cork will tackle issues such as who falls for misinformation; when they’re more susceptible to it; its power to distort our memories; and the newly emerging intervention methods to reduce its spread and impact, in her presentation ‘Fake News, False Memories & Fact Checkers: Understanding & Combatting Health Misinformation’.

Host of the event and Chief Executive at the Health Research Board, Dr Mairéad O’Driscoll, says;

“COVID-19 remains a stark reminder of the importance of making decisions and actions based on good evidence. Yet still, misinformation abounds, with unreliable health claims thriving in the online environment in particular.

“Our conference aims to advance critical thinking about health claims and increase people’s ability to assess the trustworthiness of research evidence so researchers, practitioners, policy makers, the public and patients can make informed decisions.”

Dr Margaret McCartney and Deirdre MacLoughlin will address the importance of health practitioners and patients in the critical analysis of evidence to make informed decisions.

The conference is delivered in partnership with Evidence Synthesis Ireland, the HRB-Trials Methodology Research Network and Cochrane Ireland.

For the full programme and list of speakers, visit www.hrb.ie/news/events/trust-and-truth-in-health-research/

The event is free and welcomes researchers, policymakers, health care practitioners, students, patients and members of the public.

ENDS

For more information contact:

Aileen Gaskin 087 7724 717 aileen@communicationsclinic.ie or Robyn Keleghan 085 800 1275 robyn@communicationsclinic.ie

EDITOR’S NOTES

For details on how to register, visit www.hrb.ie/news/events/trust-and-truth-in-health-research/

Follow the conference on Twitter @hrbireland

The conference hashtag is #HRBConf2020