Social media presents a robust stage for disseminating time-sensitive information that is needed during a public health disease of global concern such as COVID-19. This study finds out how the 23 anglophone Sub-Saharan African countries’ national health ministries and infectious disease agencies disseminated COVID-19 related information through their social media accounts within the first three months after the declaration of COVID-19 as a pandemic by the World Health Organization. COVID-19 related qualitative and quantitative data types were collected from the social media accounts of the surveyed national health ministries and agencies for analysis. Over 86% of the African countries had presence on social media; Facebook was the most popular, though Twitter contained more posts. One of the credibility issues that was noticed is that most of the health ministries’ and agencies’ social media accounts were unverified and access to the social media accounts was not provided on most of their official websites. Information dissemination became more deliberate and increased significantly after the announcement of the fist cases of COVID-19 in the countries under review. Awareness creation, updates and news constituted the major categories of information that were disseminated, mostly in the form of derivative social media information before the announcement of the first COVID-19 case in the surveyed African countries. Campaigns against misinformation were barely undertaken by most of the countries. Strategies used by some countries included the employment of social media influencers and creation of content in local languages. Strategies that include development of health information content that targets different groups in African societies and the inclusion of elderly in the community and religious leaders as non-state actors in health information communication were recommended.

The health information management (HIM) field’s contribution to health care delivery is invaluable in a pandemic context where the need for accurate diagnoses will hasten responsive, evidence-based decision-making. The COVID-19 pandemic offers a unique opportunity to transform the practice of HIM and bring more awareness to the role that frontline workers play behind the scenes in safeguarding reliable, comprehensive, accurate, and timely health information. This transformation will support future research, utilization management, public health surveillance, and forecasting and enable key stakeholders to plan and ensure equitable health care resource allocation, especially for the most vulnerable populations. In this paper, we juxtapose critical health literacy, public policy, and HIM perspectives to understand the COVID-19 infodemic and new opportunities for HIM in infodemic management.

UNSTRUCTURED This is a corrigendum for ms #35014.

This panel convenes six emerging scholars in the area of health information science, to trace some of the multiple pathways taken by this pluralistic discipline in research, practice and policy areas. How is HIS developing as an academic discipline? In describing the conceptual and methodological concerns of their work, presenters will raise some of the live questions shaping a health information science lens, including: - What practice and policy sectors contain pressing HIS questions right now?- What methodologies are most saliently informing research production in HIS?- What theoretical approaches have been tried in current and ongoing HIS research?- How is knowledge translation effected in HIS?   Ce panel réunit six chercheurs émergents dans le domaine de la science de l'information sur la santé (SIS), afin de retracer certaines des multiples voies empruntées par cette discipline pluraliste dans les domaines de la recherche, de la pratique et des politiques. Comment la SIS évolue-t-il en tant que discipline universitaire? En décrivant le concept et la méthodologie préoccupations de leur travail, les présentateurs soulèveront certaines des questions en direct qui façonnent le prisme des sciences de l'information sur la santé, notamment:- Quels secteurs pratiques et politiques comportent actuellement des questions urgentes relevant de la SIS?- Quelles méthodologies sont les plus importantes dans la recherche dans la SIS?- Quelles approches théoriques ont été utilisées dans les recherches actuelles et en cours sur la SIS?- Comment les connaissances sont-elles appliquées dans la SIS?

UNSTRUCTURED The Health Information Management (HIM) field’s contribution to health care delivery is invaluable, especially in a pandemic context where the need for accurate diagnosis will hasten responsive evidence-based decision making. The COVID-19 pandemic offers a unique opportunity to transform the practice of HIM and bring more awareness to the role the frontline workers play behind the scenes safeguarding reliable, comprehensive, accurate and timely health information. This transformation will support future research, utilization management, public health surveillance and forecasting and enable key stakeholders to plan and ensure equitable health care resource allocation, especially for the most vulnerable populations. In this paper, we juxtapose critical health literacy, public policy, and health information management perspectives to understand the COVID-19 infodemic and new opportunities for health information management in infodemiology.