97% of Canadian doctors report having to counter harm caused by false online information

A new survey done for the Canadian Medical Association by Abacus Data has found that 97 per cent of doctors have had to intervene to prevent harm or counter the consequences caused by misleading online information, including advice generated by artificial intelligence.

Another 34 per cent of physicians said they have had to do this “often.” Forty-five per cent said “sometimes,” while 18 per cent answered “rarely.”

“Doctors face an uphill battle trying to provide timely patient care when they are routinely dealing with health systems that cannot communicate with each other and when patients are inundated with false health information that can lead to unintended harms,” Dr. Margot Burnell, CMA president, said in a statement from the CMA released on April 21. “We need modern, connected digital health systems and stronger federal action to promote trusted health information.”

This survey follows in the wake of the CMA’s 2026 Health and Media Tracking Survey, which found that Canadians who followed health advice from AI were five times more likely to experience harm than people who did not.

Another key issue arising from the survey is that Canadian doctors are stymied by a lack of connection in health systems. This prevents sharing patient records, test results and clinical noted, the physician-respondents told Abacus.

A report on the survey in the latest edition of Physician Pulse, stated that “an overwhelming 99 per cent of doctors are reporting concerns about disconnected health systems.”

Almost half of those doctors (48 per cent) reported seeing a patient who has faced serious adverse health consequences, such as the progression of a disease progression or a missed diagnoses because of this technological disconnect.

The Canadian Medical Association is sending front-line physicians to Parliament Hill this week to lobby for tools to address these concerns.

Representatives from its new Physician Advocacy Network as well as 11 provincial and territorial medical associations will be meet with parliamentarians and focus on some of their challenges, such as easing the administrative burden on doctors with improved secure patient-data sharing, countering false health information found online by their patients, strengthening access to team based primary care and making it easier for internationally trained physicians to practice in Canada.

The survey was completed by 645 practicing doctors between April 6-13, 2026.

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