Media training for doctors: what it covers and the rules to know

Media training for doctors prepares clinicians to explain health clearly to journalists and the public, under time pressure, without saying something they’ll regret. It covers key messages, interview technique and camera skills. For doctors it should also cover something general media training skips: the professional rules on confidentiality, conflicts of interest and accuracy that follow you into every interview.

This guide explains why doctors need media training, the UK and US rules that apply, what hospitals need to know about cameras and patients, what good training covers, and how to prepare for a single interview. It’s for doctors and other clinicians who want to do media work, and for the clinics, hospitals and health brands that put them forward.

Why do doctors need media training?

Because what doctors say in the media shapes what the public believes about health. The Science Media Centre’s 2015 guide Why engage with the news media? cites Ipsos MORI’s 2011 Public Attitudes to Science survey, which found that 87% of the public get most of their information about science from the media. The SMC’s argument for engaging is simple: if experts stay silent, journalists will turn to someone who knows less.

Accuracy also starts before the journalist gets involved. A 2014 BMJ study by Sumner and colleagues looked at 462 health-related press releases from 20 leading UK universities and the news stories that followed. When the press releases exaggerated, by giving advice that went beyond the research, drawing causal claims from correlational data or applying animal findings to humans, 58%, 81% and 86% of the related news stories carried similar exaggeration. When the releases didn’t exaggerate, the rates in the news were 17%, 18% and 10%. The researchers also found little evidence that exaggeration earned more coverage.

The lesson for a doctor is that the words you choose, in a press release, a quote or an interview, are likely to be the words that reach the public. Media training is how you choose them well, and how you stay accurate when a journalist pushes for a simpler or stronger line than the evidence supports.

What professional rules apply when doctors talk to the media?

In the UK: the GMC

The GMC’s Good medical practice, the 2024 edition of which came into effect on 30 January 2024, sets out how doctors should communicate as medical professionals, including in public. The key paragraphs for media work are:

• Paragraph 82: be honest about your experience, qualifications and current role.
• Paragraph 88: be honest and trustworthy, and maintain patient confidentiality, in all your professional communications.
• Paragraph 89: make sure what you communicate as a medical professional is accurate and not false or misleading. That means taking reasonable steps to check it, not leaving out relevant information, not minimising or trivialising risks of harm, and not presenting opinion as established fact.
• Paragraph 90: when communicating publicly as a medical professional, declare any conflicts of interest and don’t exploit people’s vulnerability or lack of medical knowledge.

The GMC’s separate guidance on using social media as a medical professional adds that if you’re commenting on health or healthcare you should usually say who you are, that you must not misrepresent your experience and qualifications, and that you must not disclose identifiable patient information without explicit consent. It warns that details which don’t identify a patient on their own can add up to something that does. That’s worth remembering when you reach for an anecdote in an interview, too.

In the US: the AMA Code of Medical Ethics

AMA Opinion 8.12, on ethical physician conduct in the media, starts from the point that physicians will be taken as authorities when they engage with the media. It says the information they give should be accurate, include known risks and benefits, be within their medical expertise, and rest on valid scientific evidence and professional experience. It also asks physicians to:

• refrain from making clinical diagnoses about people they haven’t personally examined, such as public officials, celebrities and people in the news;
• protect patient privacy by not discussing identifiable information without the patient’s specific permission;
• fully disclose conflicts of interest and avoid situations that could lead to them.

The first of those comes up all the time. A journalist asks what a celebrity’s symptoms might mean, or whether a politician looks unwell. A trained doctor answers the general question (what those symptoms can indicate, and when someone should get them checked) and politely declines the specific one.

Other clinicians have their own regulators and codes, such as the HCPC and NMC in the UK and state licensing boards in the US. The principles are similar, but check the ones that apply to you.

Can spreading misinformation put a doctor’s licence at risk?

Yes. On 29 July 2021 the Federation of State Medical Boards warned that physicians who generate and spread COVID-19 vaccine misinformation or disinformation risk disciplinary action, including suspension or revocation of their medical licence.

It wasn’t a hypothetical concern. A 2023 study in JAMA Network Open by Sule and colleagues identified 52 US physicians, across 28 specialties, who spread COVID-19 misinformation on social media and other online platforms between January 2021 and December 2022. Forty-two of them posted vaccine misinformation, and 20 posted misinformation on five or more platforms.

Most doctors who do media work will never come near that. But the same principle applies to everyday interviews: stay within the evidence and your expertise, say when something is uncertain, and don’t let a journalist’s framing turn your opinion into a claim of fact. In the UK, paragraph 89 of Good medical practice asks for exactly that.

What does hospital media training need to cover?

Hospital media training goes beyond the individual interview. When a hospital or clinic hosts journalists or a film crew, patient privacy rules apply to the whole building, and every member of staff on shift is part of the risk.

In the US, the HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR), which enforces HIPAA, is clear. Its FAQ on film and media says healthcare providers cannot invite or allow media personnel, including film crews, into treatment areas or other areas where patients’ protected health information is accessible, without prior written authorisation from each individual who is or will be in the area. Asking the crew to mask patients’ identities is not sufficient, and providers must have reasonable safeguards in place to prevent other disclosures.

A well-known example involved the ABC series NY Med. As CNBC reported, a man was filmed while dying at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in April 2011 after being hit by a garbage truck, and his widow recognised him while watching an episode, even though his face had been blurred. OCR said the filming was done without the prior consent of the individuals. The hospital paid $2.2 million to settle and agreed to a corrective action plan with two years of monitoring.

In the UK, the duty of confidentiality in Good medical practice applies in the same way, alongside your organisation’s own filming and consent policy. Whatever the country, hospital media training should cover:

• who can approve media access, and how written consent is obtained and recorded;
• which areas are off limits, and who escorts journalists and crews;
• what staff should say if a journalist approaches them directly;
• how clinicians can talk about cases without identifying patients;
• who speaks for the organisation in a crisis, and who doesn’t.

What does media training for doctors cover?

Good training is practical and rehearsed, not a lecture. The core elements are:

• Key messages. The Science Media Centre’s top tips for media work advise deciding on three key messages before you speak to a journalist, and getting back to them when questions wander. Much of the work is making those messages short, accurate and free of jargon.
• Quotable answers. Journalists need lines they can use as they are. That means short sentences, no unexplained acronyms or measurements, and numbers people can picture.
• Difficult questions. Hostile questions, questions outside your expertise, requests to comment on a patient or a named person, and hypothetical “what if” questions. Training means practising the honest answer, including “that’s outside my area”.
• Different formats. A print interview, a live radio slot, a pre-recorded TV piece and a podcast each need different preparation. The SMC points out that live interviews, daunting as they sound, have the advantage of not being cut before broadcast.
• On camera. Where to look, how to sit, what to wear, and how to handle a remote interview from your own office.
• Rules and risk. The GMC, AMA or other professional standards that apply to you, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, and what to do if you get something wrong.
• Crisis readiness. For doctors who lead services, how to respond when something has gone wrong and the press are calling.

Our media training for health experts follows this structure, with mock interviews for print, radio, podcast and camera, so the first time you face a tough question isn’t the time it counts.

How should a doctor prepare for an interview?

Many interviews come with little warning. The SMC’s tips note that a journalist’s deadline could be in ten minutes. A short routine helps:

1. Ask questions before you agree. Why is the journalist doing the story now, and what’s the angle? Who else are they speaking to? Is it live or pre-recorded? What’s the deadline? Can they tell you the first question? The SMC suggests asking all of these.
2. Check it’s within your expertise. If it isn’t, say so and suggest someone better placed. Journalists remember who helped them.
3. Write down your three points. Keep them in front of you for phone and remote interviews.
4. Check your facts. Have the key numbers and their sources to hand. If you’re commenting on a new study, read the paper, not just the press release.
5. Declare interests. If you have a link to a company, product or organisation in the story, tell the journalist.
6. Follow your employer’s policy. If your hospital or practice has a press office or media policy, involve it before you agree.
7. Think about patients. Use examples that can’t identify anyone, or get the patient’s explicit consent first.
8. Prepare for the awkward question. Decide in advance how you’ll answer the one you’d least like to be asked.

It also helps to know how the other side works. Our guide to how health journalists work explains what they look for in a source and why they check credentials and conflicts so closely.

What should doctors do after the interview?

• Correct errors promptly and politely. If a fact or your title is wrong, email the journalist with the correction. Don’t ask to change the angle, or a quote you simply wish you’d phrased differently.
• Share it responsibly. Post the piece on your professional channels, remembering that the GMC’s social media guidance, or your own regulator’s, still applies.
• Follow up with thanks and a line on other topics you can cover. That’s how one interview becomes a relationship.
• Keep a record. Log the outlet, journalist, topic and link. It builds the media profile that producers and editors look at before they call.

Doctors who want to do this regularly should read our guide to becoming a go-to media expert as a clinician. Answering journalists’ expert requests, covered in our guide to HARO for health experts, is a low-pressure way to practise. And if you’d like help finding the opportunities as well as preparing for them, our media relations team handles both.

This guide is general information, not legal advice.