Social media has become an essential part of many businesses, celebrities, organizations and other personalities on the internet as a means to grow their brand and gain a following. But now, medical professionals are getting involved and broadcasting themselves on TikTok, as the short-form video app has been surging in popularity for the past two years. When it comes to giving medical advice, one has to wonder—is it appropriate for these doctors to bring their work to social media?

Doctors have been using their profession on social media for years now. On Twitter and Instagram, they have provided educational comments connecting current events to their work in the hopes of attracting potential patients. But in the past few years, more and more doctors have been broadcasting themselves on YouTube, as it gives them the opportunity to make longer and more informational videos on specific topics. 

Doctor Mikhail Varshavski, known as “Doctor Mike,” is a primary care physician who has gained over 4 million subscribers on YouTube. He makes videos that range from clearing up commonly misheld beliefs about medicine and health to videos reacting to medical TV dramas and critiquing their inaccuracy. His videos have given him the opportunity to reach a wide range of people and correct many false beliefs that are pervasive on the internet, such as the rhetoric used by those in the anti-vaccine movement.

Doctor Mike is one of many doctors on YouTube who make an effort to try and educate people. So far, the presence of doctors on the platform has seemed to make solely positive impacts. But now that doctors are using TikTok, where the main demographic is teens and the overall goal is to create content that is humorous and/or entertaining and will go viral, it has become a grey area on whether their presence is more helpful or harmful.

To their credit, many doctors on the platform seem to be trying to educate teens similarly to the ones on YouTube. Dr. Danielle Jones is a gynecologist who uses her account to educate teenagers about sex, and Dr. Rose Marie Leslie educates on everything from vaping-associated lung diseases to HPV vaccines.

But others have come under fire for using their platform in less constructive ways. In November, a nurse who goes by “D Rose” online was criticized for a TikTok mocking patients for allegedly faking symptoms. While lip-syncing a lyric from a Rex Orange County song, one medical professional followed her lead and speculated that a patient who came in for chest pain was actually using cocaine. Another mocked patients who go to the emergency room for care instead of a primary care physician.

This type of behavior is clearly egregious and those who work in medicine should know that their presence online influences people’s views of medical professionals. It is not surprising that even medical professionals would be enticed by the promise of social media fame, but a million likes on TikTok is not worth alienating some people from doctors altogether. When they see one doctor on TikTok mocking patients, it reinforces the idea that all doctors see patients that way. 

Medical professionals tread a fine line when on TikTok. On one hand, it is a good way to reach a teenage demographic and provide them with accurate medical information when they are not getting any. But on the other hand, short-form videos intended for virality are not the best medium to spread those messages, and they risk influencing doctors to join in on making “humorous” or sensationalist content just to obtain brief social media fame. 

Medical professionals should know that anything they post on social media should be handled with care, because it is automatically taken seriously due to the nature of their position. Too many people have had negative experiences with doctors, and those on social media need to work to show those experiences are the exception, not the rule.