Dilek Aslan ^1* Fatjona Kamberi ² Selen Yegenoglu ³

• ¹ Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Türkiye
• ² University of Vlorë, Vlorë, Albania, Vlorë, Albania
• ³ Department of Pharmacy Management, Faculty of Pharmacy, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Ankara, Türkiye

Infodemic, one of the major challenges of the 21 st century, is defined as the information overload in digital and/or physical environments, including misinformation, disinformation, unchecked information, information voids, conspiracy theories, etc. Infodemic causes risktaking behaviors that are harmful for health (1). Infodemic is not a new phenomenon, as human history has examples with different topics in different time periods (2,3). On the other hand, public health crises make the communities more vulnerable to infodemic and this makes the situation more complex. A recent example has been the Coronavirus-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. COVID-19 pandemic has shown us how a public health crisis might have crashed the systems of the countries. The world has experienced that it was not only the pandemic itself; many determinants of health, like social, structural, economical, commercial, and digital, concurrently influenced the course of the pandemic. Thus, the information ecosystem has been one of the major drivers of the burden. Infodemic has been a priority to be managed. In this regard, infodemic management has been developed as a systematic approach. Infodemic management is based on four pillars, including listening to community concerns and questions, facilitating to understand the risk, promoting to understand the advice of the health professionals, maintaining the resilience of the communities, and succeeding to engage and empower them to take intended and positive actions against infodemic.For translating infodemic management into future generations, its pillars should be supported with evidence-based science to understand the causes of infodemic and to propose sustainable solutions to overcome the problems of today. Such initiatives will be helpful for predicting future risks and taking sustainable, evidence-based measures. At this point, research papers, perspectives, reviews, and opinions might have the potential to contribute to proposing solutions for the current and future crises at the global level. Such evidence is believed to play a crucial role in shaping future perspectives of infodemic management. Current evidence will also highlight the need for research gaps and capacity building on the issue. The context of public health and health promotion provides the interdisciplinary feature of infodemic management. Such examples are extremely helpful to be prepared for the next pandemic(s). One study protocol paper in its pilot study phase written by authors with different backgrounds and institutions in the research topic has been a good example of a worldwide network of websites that could be used for effective and good communication. The systematic review article in the content has been a very significant example of how a systematic review can be conducted in the management of infodemic in health crises.In the light of the above we feel that more steps should be taken to solve the infodemic problem at the global level. We are sure that public health crises' complexity makes everything worse and difficult. In this regard, scientific evidence is recommended to be conducted compatible with the pillars of infodemic management. Thus, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research teams have to study together to define the challenges and to propose solutions to be prepared for the next public health crises.Unfortunately, public health crises are today's reality. They are also hot topics of the current century. Therefore, practical, reliable, and objective solutions should meet the needs of the community. Science and scientific evidence will be the leading tools as they were in the past.In conclusion, the research topic on Infodemic Management in Public Health Crises hopefully will tackle the recent needs and open a new vision for the readers. It provides valuable insights into managing health information during outbreaks like COVID-19. It emphasizes the importance of addressing infodemic, to better control disease spread. The studies highlight the role of social media platforms in shaping communication strategies for future crises including pandemics. By leveraging social capital, improving access to social media data, and learning from past health crises, the findings offer key strategies for enhancing infodemic management in future public health emergencies.