"One cup daily eliminates nodules," "Wearing bracelets turns ADHD into 'top students'..." Similar "science popularization" short videos once flooded the internet. "Internet-famous doctors" doubled as livestreaming e-commerce hosts for MCN agencies, directly "hitting" the health anxieties of all age groups, from the elderly to the young.
In August of this year, multiple Chinese authorities jointly launched a comprehensive governance campaign, aiming to fully regulate self-media accounts and rectify the chaos in online science popularization by strictly controlling the three gates: "Who is speaking," "What is being said," and "How are they profiting?" Nearly three months into the governance, the public can clearly feel that online rumors disguised as "science popularization" are disappearing, and misleading content that creates health anxiety has significantly decreased.
In recent years, chaos in online popular health science has occurred frequently. Some patients were misled and deceived, suffering minor losses, such as buying ineffective health products, or, more severely, missing the optimal treatment window. Many members of the public fell deep into health anxiety, with "search results starting with cancer" causing many young people to develop hypochondriasis. Big data, adept at "gauging people's minds," colluded with pseudo-science, exploiting human fear of health issues to gain traffic and profit.
A Beijing resident, Ms. Wu, told a Wen Wei Po reporter that after a physical exam revealed lung nodules, she searched for information just once on a social app, only to be constantly pushed related videos by big data. The content was often contradictory, with some claiming it's nothing and others diagnosing it as "cancer." She even encountered information promoting insurance, "recommending" genetic testing, and even group-buying cemetery plots. However, during an offline consultation, her doctor simply advised her to "continue observing."
"It can be said that the mental stress caused by various online science information far exceeds the physiological harm of the lung nodules themselves," Ms. Wu said.
Currently, popularizing medical science is a hot topic on short video platforms, with more and more doctors sharing health knowledge through live streams and short videos. However, some "internet-famous doctors" treat medical popular science as a tool for profit, abusing professional authority for self-endorsement, and engaging in practices such as illegally directing patients for consultations, providing online consultations, redirecting traffic offline, live-streaming sales, and even prescribing high-priced medicines under the guise of popularizing science. Others mislead the public and amass wealth by exaggerating treatment effects, fabricating cases, and inventing stories.
"Medical science popularization is very important; it's a form of socialized professional value that social media platforms bring to medical workers, but 'pseudo-science' and 'pseudo-popularization' are not included," said Chen Xingang, a professor at the Communication University of China. According to him, the current popular forms of health pseudo-science and pseudo-popularization online can be broadly categorized into two types: The first is "fake doctors, pseudo-popularization," and the second is "real doctors, pseudo-popularization."
Following the introduction of new regulations targeting popular online science in places like Shanghai and Sichuan, comprehensive national-level governance has also begun. In July of this year, the National Health Commission (NHC) responded for the first time to the management issue of "internet-famous doctors" directing traffic for sales. In August, four authorities jointly issued clear requirements: self-media accounts are responsible for the authenticity and scientific nature of the medical science information they publish or share; accounts without proper qualifications are strictly prohibited from producing and publishing professional medical science content; and the disguised publication of advertisements in violation of rules is strictly prohibited.
"This is what we call 'getting serious,'" commented Chen, noting that this official, comprehensive governance of online health popularization involves systematic regulation covering account qualifications, content sources, advertising practices, and the labeling of AI-generated content.
This campaign also sends a strong signal that medical science popularization must not compromise professionalism and integrity. It sends a clear message to those "internet-famous doctors" who exploit professional knowledge for improper gain, while also supporting those diligent medical workers who persist in producing genuine scientific popularization. It is believed this will hopefully gradually repair the doctor-patient trust damaged by the chaos.
With official measures introduced to strengthen the regulation of doctors' self-media science popularization activities, many clinical doctors have agreed.
"In my work, I have seen many patients who believe in pseudo-science. "Some patients blindly trust 'folk remedies,' while others suffer from hypochondriasis, which leads to a significant waste of medical resources," a clinical doctor from a Beijing tertiary hospital noted. He agrees with the official measures to strictly manage "internet-famous doctors," stating that a doctor's stage is in the consultation room and operating theater, not online.
However, some doctors also have reservations.
"Now, professional title evaluations for doctors also require KPIs for science popularization. Ordinary science popularization receives minimal attention, but deviating slightly from the norm can quickly lead to serious consequences. Really difficult." "Clinical work is already so exhausting every day, and we still have to make free science popularization videos. If not done carefully, it can lead to trouble. It's better to avoid doing it.
"The core purpose of the official series of regulations is not to suppress doctors' voices, but to 'clear up' the environment, protect truly valuable science popularization, and avoid inadvertently 'overstepping bounds' and bearing legal and professional risks. It actually escorts and protects responsible doctors," Chen said. He believes that medical knowledge and the popularization of medical science differ from other scientific knowledge; they concern everyone and are a matter of life and death. Implementing content supervision and governance is completely correct, and stricter regulation of medical science popularization should be supported.
Chen believes that "speaking boldly" does not mean being "outspoken without restraint," and "effective communication" does not necessarily require "grabbing eyeballs." "The key is to find a balance between professionalism and communicability."
Regarding content, it is recommended that doctors indicate their professional field at the beginning or in a prominent position of their videos and clearly state that "this content is only for health knowledge popularization and does not constitute medical advice. Please consult offline for medical issues." In terms of format, they can fully utilize platform advantages, such as using short videos for knowledge dissemination and live streams for Q&A with viewers, to pursue value-based communication.
Regarding enhancing clinical doctors' motivation to engage in science popularization, experts emphasize the need to provide more positive feedback for doctors who do health popularization. Chen said that platforms should strengthen the professionalization of content review: on one hand, they should prevent the dissemination and spread of pseudo-science from fake doctors; on the other hand, they should avoid excessive review, strengthen the processing efficiency of appeal channels for medical personnel accounts, and not let real doctors become disheartened.
Furthermore, it is suggested that the government or public welfare organizations establish special health creation funds to reward outstanding works and creators whose content is scientific, form is innovative, and communication is effective.
(Source: Wen Wei Po; Journalist: Liu Ningzhe, Su Yurun)
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