Empowering Third-Year Medical Students to Detect Bias and Medical Misinformation Online via Experiential Learning of "Lateral Reading," A Fact-Checker's Technique.

ABSTRACT: Problem: Misleading health information is detrimental to public health. Even physicians can be misled by biased health information; however, medical students and physicians are not taught some of the most effective techniques for identifying bias and misinformation online. Intervention: Using the stages of Kolb's experiential learning cycle as a framework, we aimed to teach 117 third-year students at a United States medical school to apply a fact-checking technique for identifying bias and misinformation called "lateral reading" through a 50-minute learning cycle in a 90-minute class. Each student's concrete experience was to independently read a biased article and rate its credibility, demonstrating their baseline skills at identifying bias. Students wer

SUBMITTER: McKinney ZJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12003029 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct-Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature