Public Health Specialist Prof. Dr. Haydar Sur, pointing to promotions made via social media and unlicensed healthcare practices, stated, “While social media offers the opportunity to reach the widest audiences most rapidly, incorrect communication or misinformation can also spread at the same speed.”
Prof. Dr. Haydar Sur: “In an environment where some see depriving children of vaccines and obstructing vaccination services as an achievement, social media can become a dangerous tool in the hands of these individuals.”
Üsküdar Üniversitesi Faculty of Medicine Dean Prof. Dr. Haydar Sur drew attention to the increasing dangers of misleading health information spreading on social media and unlicensed healthcare practices.
Promoting healthcare services is as important as their provision
Prof. Dr. Haydar Sur emphasized that promoting healthcare services to the public is as important as providing the service itself. He stated, “However, while appropriate promotion is carried out, revealing everything related to health without distinguishing between right and wrong can lead to great dangers. This situation can result in individuals, termed 'semi-enlightened', acquiring such information and pretending to be doctors to others without full knowledge. Therefore, social media promotions, in particular, hold special importance. While social media offers the opportunity to reach the widest audiences most rapidly, incorrect communication or misinformation can also spread at the same speed. For this reason, the delivery of accurate information through correct communication channels, with correct messages, and to the correct target audiences must be strictly controlled. If there is a break or fault in any link of this chain, it will be even more difficult to correct the situation and convert the widely spread misinformation back to accuracy.”
Social media can convey correct messages in the hands of experts
Addressing unlicensed healthcare practices, Prof. Dr. Haydar Sur said, “Such practices have gone out of control and represent a situation for which we cannot provide any guarantee of quality. In this blurry picture, where we cannot fully determine who does what and how, questions about where the error lies, what kind of errors are made, who committed these errors, and how to correct them remain unanswered. However, when social media's broad scope and rapid dissemination power are transformed into a medium where correct messages are correctly conveyed in the hands of experts, it can truly benefit public health.”
Anti-vaxxers confuse people by using social media
“As a negative example of this situation, efforts by vaccine hesitant individuals and anti-vaxxers to confuse people using social media, depriving some children of vaccines and disrupting vaccination services can be shown,” said Prof. Dr. Haydar Sur. He added, “In an environment where some see depriving children of vaccines and obstructing vaccination services as an achievement, social media can become a dangerous tool in the hands of these individuals.”
Traditional and complementary medicine can be controlled when performed by professionals
Similarly, Prof. Dr. Haydar Sur pointed out that some traditional practices that cause more harm than good to public health can also pose a threat. He stated, “Traditional and complementary medicine can be controlled and can strengthen classic medical services when performed by professionals. Therefore, the care taken in promoting these services is as important as the provision of healthcare services.”
Even if the service providers are certified professionals, it's still unlicensed…
Prof. Dr. Haydar Sur emphasized that in the professional and systematic organization and provision of healthcare services, all stages such as planning the service, allocating resources, training professionals, organizing and opening service institutions, promoting these services to the public, and responding to demand with service, must be controlled. He continued:
“Monitoring the health of those we serve, providing services to those who cannot reach us by going to them, and registering these services in the health statistics system are also part of this process. Services not provided in this manner are considered unlicensed, even if the providers are certified professionals. Indeed, all services provided by uncertified individuals should be considered unlicensed.”
“We cannot call services provided by certified individuals 'unlicensed'”
Prof. Dr. Haydar Sur also explained what he meant by ‘professional’ and ‘certified’:
“I would like to draw attention to this; depending on the situation and capabilities of countries, sometimes when there are no certified individuals or they are insufficient, people who can meet the need are trained through accelerated courses, certified, and deployed to the service area. In this case, even if they do not have diplomas, the services provided by individuals who have undergone training in a specific format and are certified are also brought under control. We cannot call such services 'unlicensed'.”
Unlicensed practices can paralyze
“For example, in the early years of the Republic, when the number of midwives in our country was very low, sensible, literate primary school graduate women in neighborhoods were trained by obstetricians and authorized as neighborhood midwives, village midwives,” Prof. Dr. Sur explained. He added, “These individuals provided great service at that time; during periods when maternal deaths reached very high figures, almost two hundred thousand per thousand, they made significant contributions to reducing maternal and infant deaths. We cannot call such services 'unlicensed'. However, we can call the services provided by uncontrolled individuals who, without fully understanding what they are doing, say ‘the back is pulled, this is done, that is done’ and paralyze people, 'unlicensed'.”