A few weeks ago, a friend DM-ed a dance reel of a dermatologist both of us had consulted. The video was in terrible taste and her interaction in the comment section was crude. There was a string of similar content that she posted consistently. While I cannot fault her as a doctor, I found it difficult to relate to her online persona.
It is not unusual to find doctors with a strong Instagram presence talking about health, doing collab reels and dancing to viral songs. But this constant online presence can be disconcerting, especially since the profession involves saving lives. But while people like me are on one end of the debate, others say they have benefited from such content.
Mumbai-based Shefali Kothari, 48, turned to Instagram when she needed clinical advice on perimenopause, and found a doctor in Australia who did online consultations. She was looking for someone who also knew how to deal with ADHD. “For me, Instagram has been a place that allows me to vet a doctor’s approach a little more clearly without paying for it.” It is an interesting take. In the age of social media, one can assess a doctor’s expertise based on their content.
But, more importantly, content can build or break trust. The tendency to create content for the sake of engagement and publicity has the potential to erode credibility. Kothari explains, “When the format takes over the actual information, that concerns me, it’s a bit of a red flag.”
If a medical professional is dancing to hook steps just for likes or sharing outfit-of-the-day posts and publishing back-to-back reels, I find it hard to take them seriously when it comes to medical advice.
But what if the reels are informative? Dr Akshat Chadha, @dr_akshat on Instagram, posts dance reels with health tips. The lifestyle medicine practitioner started his content-creation journey during the pandemic to deal with misinformation. “In the early days of covid, my phone would be buzzing with patients, friends and family saying all kinds of things. While responding to them individually, I thought it was better to share information on a platform that everyone could access.”
Dr Chadha, who has a team for content creation, says making accurate information about health accessible gives him a sense of fulfilment. The biggest challenge, he adds, is switching off as both content creation and his medical practice feed into one another.
A medical professional’s social media post could also influence their patient in unexpected ways. Gurugram-based chef Vandana Tomar’s therapist creates text- based posts on Instagram. She published a post that read, “Don’t do good, do right.” It was a trigger for Tomar, and she had three sessions with this statement as the central theme. This line has now become a fundamental part of her life.
Just like Kothari, she vets a doctor based on their social media presence. She looks at who follows the doctor, who they create collab posts with, and what type of content they create.
The ability to align or resonate with health content differs from person to person. While I tend to be sceptical of doctors making inane dance reels, Kothari notes, “It doesn’t matter as long as it doesn’t get in the way of my care.”