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When patients and families ask about unproven therapies, clinicians often find themselves walking a fine line: balancing hope with evidence, empathy with professional boundaries. These conversations are becoming increasingly common, driven by media coverage, online information, and peer recommendations.
To help identify strategies to support clinicians manage health misinformation and enquiries about unproven therapies, Dr Leanne Rees, a reNEW Melbourne PREPARE researcher based at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, together with Prof. Megan Munsie, reNEW PREPARE Theme Lead and Prof. Robyn Woodward-Kron from the University of Melbourne, recently completed a new study, now published in Patient Education and Counseling.
The qualitative study, informed by a descriptive and phenomenological approach, collected data from nine focus groups with 58 clinicians from diverse healthcare teams.
“Our research revealed that while each enquiry is shaped by the patients experience with a health condition, there are striking similarities in the challenges clinicians face across different settings,” said Dr Rees.
Themes that emerged include the difficulty in navigating “grey areas” of science and medicine where evidence is uncertain, managing multiple voices in the room, and contending with external influences such as marketing strategies and funding models.
The study highlighted that enquiries are frequent and varied, yet often approached with hesitation by clinicians, patients, and families alike. This reluctance underscores the need for proactive communication strategies that equip clinicians to initiate and guide these discussions with sensitivity.
“To make these conversations easier, we need practical tools and time to reflect,” said Dr Rees.
“We must involve clinicians and people with lived experience in shaping the solutions.”
