Challenges and Opportunities in Developing an Infodemic Management Course

Abstract

Infodemic affects all of us at different levels, starting with an individual who may adopt risky behaviour, influence his/her family, spread misinformation into society, increase the burden on the health system, and impact society as a whole. Infodemic management comes to prevent and/or diminish this impact. Health authorities are increasingly recognizing the need to expand their capacities for infodemic management in their efforts to better prepare for future health emergencies, and one of the most important roles here is played by public health and healthcare managers. The aim of this paper is to identify the challenges and opportunities in developing an Infodemic Management course in the Republic of Moldova and come up with recommendations for course continuity. This experience can also be useful to other countries, with local languages other than English. At the School of Public Health Management (SPHM), in partnership with UNICEF, a 25-hour Infodemic Management course was developed. The focus of the course is to prepare public health managers for current and future infodemics. The course was tested on 25 participants in March 2024 to gather feedback and make improvements. The results showed that test scores almost doubled after the course, indicating that the objectives were successfully met. Also, the course was highly appreciated in the evaluation questionnaire. In developing the Infodemic Management course, each of the identified four challenges has brought an opportunity. Thus, limitations regarding time, costs, interaction, and little awareness could be solved by adapting available content, building partnerships, digitising the course, and applying proper promotion techniques. Taking into account the above, we can conclude that Infodemic Management is a successful, extremely current, and useful course for managers in the health system, which needs to be implemented in the Continuing Medical Education offer of the SPHM. DOI: https://doi.org/10.53486/dri2024.40; UDC: [005.57:316.658+005.963.1]:614(478); JEL: I12, H12, I23.