Developing a Bilingual Health Education Program to Identify and Address Healthcare Misinformation in a Border Community

El Paso Health Education and Awareness Team (EP-HEAT (R)) is a bilingual program focused on increasing health awareness and dispelling health-related misinformation in the U.S.-Mexico border region. EP-HEAT (R) consists of students, faculty, staff, and Promotoras. The primary objective of EP-HEAT (R) is to empower the community with healthcare resources in a culturally acceptable way. EP-HEAT (R) established the bilingual "In the Hot Seat with EP-HEAT (R): Dispelling Myths in Healthcare" series commonly referred to as Myth Busters events. Community members were surveyed following the events. Our results showed the majority of EP-HEAT (R) event attendees identified as Hispanic and were older than 46 years of age. Following EP-HEAT (R) events, attendees felt comfortable teaching the information they learned to friends and family. Dispelling myths is instrumental for communities with limited access or knowledge of healthcare and diseases. EP-HEAT (R) events serve as a platform for evaluating the sources of community's current health information, prevalence of healthcare myths, understanding the community's health information needs, and disseminating accurate health information while dispelling myths in a culturally competent manner. Medical students need to become proficient in serving as educators, particularly in underserved areas. The skills developed by participating in EP-HEAT (R) myth-buster events provide information to the community while simultaneously providing opportunities for medical students to organize these events and allowing them to act as community-facing educators that may promote their professional identity development.