Internal Medicine Resident Recognized for Clinical Vignette and Misinformation Study

Ishitha Jagadish, MD, a third-year Internal Medicine resident at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix, submitted an original abstract studying the accuracy of educational TikTok videos on asthma for the American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (ACAAI) Annual Scientific Meeting. 

Dr. Jagadish also received first prize in the Oral Clinical Vignette competition at the American College of Physicians Arizona Chapter meeting for a case detailing a complex episode of anaphylaxis initially mistaken for septic shock.

From the research abstract, Dr. Jagadish found that over 25% of asthma-related videos on TikTok contained some level of inaccuracies. The videos with misinformation also saw significantly more engagement — receiving more likes than videos containing accurate information.

“There’s a lot of opportunities for patient engagement and health education, but these platforms have also become a source of misinformation,” Dr. Jagadish said. “Asthma is a common chronic disease with a significant risk of exacerbations that can cause patients to need hospitalizations. Because of this, asthma requires accurate education to patients for self-management.”

To gather the data, her study evaluated the accuracy of asthma-related TikToks compared with evidence-based guidelines.

According to Dr. Jagadish’s research, inaccurate videos garnered a median of 1,266 likes and 247 saves compared to accurate videos, which received a median of 352 likes and 63 saves.

“Specifically looking at videos created by health care professionals, they tended to be more thorough and be a few minutes long in duration,” Dr. Jagadish said. “Content created by non-physicians was often no more than one minute in duration; so in terms of how people consume these forms of social media today, they prefer the quick form of being able to access information.”

For Dr. Jagadish, the favorability of more succinct content is an unfortunate result of how people consume social media. 

“Sometimes, these videos from non-professionals can also be suggestive of some quick fixes,” Dr. Jagadish said. “‘These are some things that you can do to cure asthma,’ although it’s not a curable disease by nature. Those types of content can become more emotionally charged and appealing for viewers.”

For the oral clinical vignette, Dr. Jagadish was approached by her associate program director and mentor Brenda L. Shinar, MD, about a patient that was initially thought to have septic shock from an infection. It was then discovered the patient had an anaphylaxis reaction and was referred to allergist immunologists, as well as a hematology and oncology professional because they needed a bone marrow biopsy.

“From there, it was found that she had a diagnosis of systemic mastocytosis, meaning there are a lot of hyper reactive mast cells releasing inflammatory chemicals in your body,” Dr. Jagadish explained. “So, that can predispose you to being at a higher risk for anaphylaxis, even with the triggers that your previously tolerated.”

According to her study, Dr. Jagadish found, only 55% of health care professionals correctly identified a case of anaphylaxis when there were no skin findings — like as a rash.

“With this presentation, I told the attendees that they could be one of the people who can properly diagnose anaphylaxis in patients such as the one I presented,” Dr. Jagadish said. “People were able to see the impact of why this case and why this type of education was important.”

Born in Bangalore, India, Dr. Jagadish grew up in Phoenix, Arizona, for most of her life. After earning her bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering at Arizona State University, Jagadish attended St. Louis University, School of Medicine.

“From there, I began to have an interest in quality improvement and research projects, which I have been able to continue throughout my residency, as well,” she said. “I did an allergy and immunology rotation, and I ended up pursuing that field specifically.”

Both of Dr. Jagadish’s recent accomplishments occurred within a week of each other last November.

“It was a lot of pressure in a short amount of time, but seeing these accomplishments has really been amazing because it shows that I’ve been able to combine my previous background of biomedical engineering and my interest in innovation and education with medicine,” Dr. Jagadish said.