Editing Credibility (section)

== In medicine ==
People rely on doctors' expertise to respond to issues relating to their health. Trust in a doctor's credibility is essential to a patient's health: depending on the patient's trust in the doctor they will be more or less willing to seek help, reveal sensitive information, submit to treatment, and follow the doctor's recommendations.<ref>Hall, M. A., Camacho, F., Dugan, E., Balkrishnan, R. (2002). Trust in the Medical Profession: Conceptual and Measurement Issues. Health Services Research, 37(5), 1419–1439. {{doi|10.1111/1475-6773.01070}}.</ref>

According to a ''New England Journal of Medicine'' study, 94% of American doctors have some relationship with a drug or medical device company, including payments but also drug samples and industry lunches, for example.<ref>A National Survey of Physician–Industry Relationships Eric G. Campbell, PhD, Russell L. Gruen, M.D., PhD, James Mountford, M.D., Lawrence G. Miller, M.D., Paul D. Cleary, PhD, David Blumenthal, M.D., M.P.P. A National Survey of Physician–Industry Relationships. N. Engl. J. Med. 2007; 356:1742–1750. 26 April 2007. {{doi|10.1056/NEJMsa064508}}.</ref> Such alarming evidence is what has prompted a growing mistrust in medical professionals' credibility. Despite the studies conducted intended on finding out how to increase doctors' credibility, the findings are inconclusive. It is a strong general consensus that increased visibility of the relationship between doctors and pharmaceutical companies is the first place to start.

The ''Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication'' published a study that “perceived credibility of online information” to grasp an understanding about how knowledge of a topic and a source expertise establish credibility to access online healthcare data. The results of this study divide expertise into three levels. Utilizing online health information that is free of bias and includes the qualifications and background of the author or organization would be considered credible. Additionally, having high numbers of [[citation]] and [[Peer review|peer-reviewed]] sources support credibility. These factors together would be level 1, which is a highly rated source. Missing a high number of citations and peer-reviewed sources results in a level 2 grade, which is considered a moderate source. Failure to meet any criteria of these would classify the source as a level 3, which is not an expert source and should be avoided. To assess these levels, one can check if a source meets the mentioned requirements, as it is the public’s decision. Furthermore, using academic resources such as [[Google Scholar]] and [[JSTOR]] can be used verify the credibility of an online source.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Eastin |first=Matthew S. |date=2001-07-01 |title=Credibility Assessments of Online Health Information: the Effects of Source Expertise and Knowledge of Content |url=https://academic.oup.com/jcmc/article/6/4/JCMC643/4584226 |journal=Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication |volume=6 |issue=4 |pages=JCMC643 |doi=10.1111/j.1083-6101.2001.tb00126.x |issn=1083-6101|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Savolainen |first=Reijo |date=2023-08-01 |title=Assessing the credibility of COVID-19 vaccine mis/disinformation in online discussion |journal=Journal of Information Science |language=en |volume=49 |issue=4 |pages=1096–1110 |doi=10.1177/01655515211040653 |issn=0165-5515 |pmc=10345821 |pmid=37461399}}</ref>