Restoring public trust is a critical challenge for health science practitioners

By Dennis Archambault

One of the most perplexing issues facing modern health care today is not one that can be solved in a laboratory or clinical research. It must be solved in the community, through slow, intentional engagement that involves community voices and lived experience. The challenge: make scientific guidance understandable, relevant, and trustworthy. That was the sobering conclusion of a group of clinical researchers from the National Academy of Medicine in a webinar on Dec. 9.

Public health officials and community health practitioners have been aware of how a growing lack of trust is undercutting the tremendous advances in public health and medical practice. This certainly became pronounced during the coronavirus pandemic and afterward. Vaccine hesitancy preceded the pandemic but has only worsened following it.

The panelists in the NAM webinar were noticeably concerned that the issue of trust is a crisis and needs an intensive, community-based solution, one which will not be a quick-fix and require a lot of in-person, human interaction. The issue of vaccine hesitancy – and the rumored, unproven connection to autism – occupied much of the discussion and reflected much of the frustration. Hundreds of studies have been conducted, and none have concluded a correlation between autism and vaccines. Yet increasingly – with the help of current leadership in the federal government – the disbelief is only increasing. What about other issues, like nutritional guidance, which are more difficult to show definitively?

This is not something that can be solved by an advertising campaign. One panelist noted, “There is no quick fix on repairing trust. You can’t flick a switch and change people’s attitudes.”

Some aspects of the solution include:

• Providers need to be taught how to communicate publicly in plain language.
• Find opportunities to community in person.
• Learn how to listen.
• Create safe space where public transport can be provided.
• Demonstrate empathy for the audience.
• Address who should do the communicating; often it is not going to be authority figures who have the greatest knowledge but someone from the community of interest.
• Establish a partnership based on trust.

Following the webinar, the National Academy of Medicine announced the launch of its Building Trust in health Science Collaborative. Details are in the link below:

National Academy of Medicine Launches the Building Trust in Health Science Through Community Partnership and Lived Experience Action Collaborative; Over 30 Members Will Co-Develop Community-Driven Approaches – NAM

Dennis Archambault is vice president of Public Affairs for Authority Health.