Picture this: One fine day, as you endlessly doom scroll through Instagram, you come across an individual in a white coat who confidently proclaims, "Product N will give you shinier hair!" You are impressed.
While someone else claims, "Use product Z for healthy hair." Now you are confused.
Another asserts, "Turmeric with oat milk cured my spouse's hair loss..." Now, you start doubting the algorithm.
On a different platform (X, Facebook, something else? Take your pick! They are everywhere!) Dr M shares insights into the brilliance of his profession, offering science-backed advice to his followers.
Meanwhile, Dr T embraces authenticity, showcasing their life as a doctor — everything from long working hours to surgical procedures.
Medical influencers and their varying content are abundant, and they are here to stay.
Every time you open a social media app, you are bombarded with content that ensures you drink cucumber and honey detox water daily and live a hundred years more. And, of course, it would also curb your hair loss, which has now become a pet peeve for you.
With the uptick in the number of digital-savvy audiences, healthcare and medical influencers are becoming more prominent — drawing attention with content that engages and informs.
The word "influencing" seems to have acquired a new meaning, where people are not only "influenced", but also try and emulate these influencers.
The process has turned us into greedy content consumers, waiting to gorge on information right from the moment we wake up until we sleep.
But are we heading the right way?
The cohort of these influencers includes medical professionals, health advocates, and individuals sharing their personal experiences, but can such information, shared to catch people's attention, lose its way and become misleading or even misconstrued?
A recent video of a medical professional, Dr Rakshita Singh (@dr.rakshitasingh), went viral for all the wrong reasons. While the video may seem like a regular description of a day in a medical professional's life, its essence dilutes as it progresses. Here's why.
The medical professional in the video seems to talk about her duties as an anesthesiologist at a government hospital she is associated with. Yet, it seems like it falls short of divulging relatable information or establishing any coherent meaning.
However, the video is not where the problem arises.
A Reddit user started a thread on the video and allegations arose that she is actually an intern and may have falsified a part of the information shared in the video, even to the point of exaggeration.
Many have further criticised this kind of pretence as a violation of AETCOM — Attitude, Ethics, and Communication — accounting to falsifying reality.
Influencers often aim to maximise their video views through high engagement, carefully curating their content in a specific way. However, the question remains — Whether this aligns with ethical standards or if it represents a new form of comedy of errors involving serious issues.
Intentions on point?
Dr Sneha Pandey (@doctorvertuoso), a junior resident anesthesiologist at a government hospital, explains that while she does not consider herself an influencer in the truest sense, she enjoys sharing glimpses of her life as a doctor with her 12,000 followers.
"I am a part of the medical fraternity, and if I have a medium that I can use to spread awareness, then why not? One can assume that a larger demographic of people would know about a certain topic, but is that really the case?" Dr Pandey asks.
One of Dr Pandey's recent reels went viral, garnering more than 10 million views on the social media platform Instagram.
"Today a father denied donating blood to his dying son in OT, who do you think you can trust now?" are the words posted with the reel. The reel received a wide range of responses, with netizens shaming and criticising the patient's father.
One user commented, "And my father was ready to donate kidney to me just because I had mild kidney problem! Boy, am I lucky!"
EdexLive questioned Dr Pandey, if the video was a violation of an ethical standard. Was the objective to shame an individual's choices, or was it aimed towards audience engagement?
"People do not realise the importance of blood donation. For many, it might not be a huge affair, but in reality, there is a paucity of blood. Hence, we ask the patient's attendants to donate blood, " she said.
"Our hospital is located at the city's periphery, and there are farmers and daily wagers who still believe that donating blood might make them weak. They are also quite superstitious," she further clarified.
Weighing in with her opinion, Dr Pandey stressed that medical influencing contributes to an increase in awareness regarding sensitive issues such as blood donation, organ donation, and so on.
EdexLive inquired if her stint as a budding influencer ever went down the wrong way. She replied with conviction that what she reported was not factually incorrect and that she had not divulged the patient's personal information.
"There are influencers who may give a false portrayal, but the goal of medical influencing is to depict our reality. We face violence from the patients we serve, we are considered inhumane, and sometimes, even our knowledge is questioned," says Dr Sneha.
Talking about responsible influencing, the resident doctor cited a personal incident. She came across a farmer diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma on his scalp who consciously, yet erroneously, opted to receive treatment from a quack doctor. Unfortunately, this resulted in the cancer metastasising and spreading to his other body parts, reaching a point of no return.
"If doctors are making people aware of this, what's the harm? In India, people are living a life of ignorance. We are making them aware. I think it is our duty, and now we have a medium, and we are making sensible use of it," she stressed.
Medical influencing. Not legitimate?
"Medical influencing can be a double-edged sword," said Anuj Pachhel, a YouTuber who has amassed more than 1.46 million followers on his YouTube channel Dr Anuj Pachhel — Study, Productivity, Guidance and Much More.
Elaborating further, Dr Pachhel reasoned that this growing phenomenon of medical influencing has a good and a bad side.
The positive aspect, he notes, is when people discover new information about various clinical conditions. However, Dr Pachhel believes that the question of the negative side might not even arise if those sharing the information are doctors with credible qualifications.
"Doctors would not indulge in incorrect information. They know it benefits no one, but people must be cautious of imposters who may not be qualified doctors, who sometimes spread misinformation to endorse products for which they are paid."
He further informed us that people are paid in lakhs for sharing sponsored content and brand endorsements. "Brands sometimes push their agenda through healthcare specialists and shell out a large amount of money. For an Instagram reel, I was once offered a sum of Rs 5 lakh," Dr Pachhel told EdexLive.
He advises that even if they find the content extremely informative, they must follow those creators who have earned valid degrees and credentials.
"These days, you would find several dermatologists and cosmetologists endorsing skincare products, but they do not possess an MD degree or an extended fellowship in DVL — Dermatology, Venereology, or Leprosy. Now this would be bad influencing — when the motive is not to help, but mislead people — and this must be stopped," emphasised Pachhel.
Pachhel, who started his channel to guide young MBBS aspirants five years ago has not budged from his original intent. "I have set my ethical standards and refrain from promoting wrong products and brands, and content for the sake of popularity or even exaggerate to create panic," he said.
Governing guidelines in effect — Would this mean strict action?
The National Medical Commission (NMC) introduced new guidelines in 2024 to ensure ethical practices of medical professionals. These guidelines address various aspects of doctors' interactions with social media, emphasising the importance of maintaining professionalism. Here are a few:
1) Patient testimonial videos featuring the patient along with the doctors are now prohibited as they are deemed unethical.
2) Doctors are banned from buying followers or employing social media agencies to amplify their online presence.
3) Registered medical practitioners cannot endorse any products, medicines, or medical services, including diagnostic procedures.
4) Specific treatment, such as surgeries or diagnostic tests like Computed Tomography (CT) or Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scan to attract patients, is forbidden.
5) Additionally, directly or indirectly soliciting patients through social media platforms is considered a violation.
6) All activities by doctors on social media must adhere to medical ethics and avoid deceptive practices aimed at gaining popularity.
In addition to this, the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has also established regulations allowing them to impose a penalty of up to Rs 10 lakh on manufacturers, advertisers, and endorsers. For repeated offences, the penalty can go up to as much as Rs 50 lakh.
Additionally, the CCPA can ban an influencer of a misleading advertisement from indulging in any endorsements for up to one year. In the case of further violations, the prohibition can be extended for up to three years.
Even if the government has tightened its grip over the influencers, EdexLive inquired if the guidelines are being strictly adhered to.
NMC and redundancy
Dr Dhruv Chauhan, a medical influencer and health activist, informed EdexLive that the guidelines have been in place since 2022, and even though they are necessary, many do not follow them.
Chauhan criticised the NMC for its lax approach to monitoring medical influencers, stating that despite the existence of rules, they are largely ignored by people.
"NMC is unable to look into cases of sexual harassment... I do not think they would ever address any complaint related to a particular video or a reel. They do not even have an active social media account, nor do they entertain someone who knocks on their door," berated Dr Chauhan.
Stressing the importance of medical influencing, he emphasised that it is the "need of the hour", he additionally said that there exist good voices who do it for the purpose of welfare.
"There are dents in every profession, but there should be no biases when it comes to the doctors. Good voices exist, and they do it for welfare," said Dr Chauhan, who has over 80,000 followers on social media platform X, and 1,02,000 followers on Instagram. Recently, he was awarded the Health Influencer of the Year award by the American Association of Physicians of Indian origin (AAPI).
However, he acknowledges the limitations of a social media influencer. Looking at it from the patient's perspective, he commented, "A patient who comes for diagnosis does not want to see himself ending up in a doctor's reel the next day."
Not-so-influenced
Influencers can often lose control, with the allure of becoming a media celebrity overshadowing their commitment to the Hippocratic oath, leading to a gradual dissolution of ethics. Healthcare influencing becomes exclusively sensitive as the effect it can have on people does not only manipulate them mentally but also has an adverse effect on their overall health.
Dr Rituparna Chakraborty calls the period after the COVID-19 pandemic an "infodemic boom".
An infodemic may refer to the spread of both accurate and inaccurate information, especially during a crisis. Sometimes, the amount of overwhelming information can be conflicting or misleading, making it difficult for people to discern the truth.
Infodemics can further hinder effective decision-making, create confusion, and exacerbate public health or safety issues.
Dr Chakraborty, an assistant professor with the Department of Psychology, Christ University, Bengaluru, told EdexLive that deceptive practices, especially in the medical field, have a huge impact, which leads to patients preferring self-diagnosis and, to an extent, self-medication as well.
"Media literacy in the country is very low, people often believe what they see on a social media page rather than a chunk of verified information published by the World Health Organization (WHO)," said Dr Chakraborty and asserted that the chances of people harming increases exponentially.
The medic, who also has expertise in the field of media psychology, doesn't forget to highlight the good.
Emphasising how these social media influencers also bring a change to the medical topography, she cited the recent uproar against the rape and murder of a doctor at the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital.
"Here we see a prime example of how medical influencers channelled their dissent correctly. Previously, due to gatekeepers of information, we received only filtered content. But now, social media influencers have broken the gates and created possibilities for people to discover and comprehend different perspectives," she added, saying that such practices could help keep false narratives in check.
Cyberchondria. What's that?
Dr Chakraborty, underscoring the power doctors may have in shaping public opinion on topics of healthcare and wellness, says that such topics must be dealt with sensitivity.
"Given the social standing of the doctors, they are an object of trust for people. Any wrongful influencing may have its adverse effects," she adds
On the basis of a psychological analogy, it says that repeated exposure to an ideology or a piece of information has the potential to modify someone's behaviour, attitude, values, and beliefs. Dr Chakraborty told Edexlive that when it comes to senstive topics, medical practitioners must be wary of what they preach.
"The pandemic taught us that India is in urgent need of media literacy. An interesting phenomenon developed among people, cyberchondria," introduced the professor.
According to the National Institutes of Health, Cyberchondria is a psychological condition where frequent online searches for medical information leads to heightened worries about physical health. It is strongly linked to symptoms of health anxiety.
She further adds that the tendency is very high in a country like India, primarily due to low media literacy and lack of fact-checks. "People tend to self-diagnose and self-medicate. Many might even push themselves to the point of lunacy, fearing even the smallest health issues they might be facing. Information overload may develop into paranoia," she added.
The growing influence of unqualified individuals and the risk of misleading content highlights the importance of maintaining ethical standards. Like Ying and Yang, technology has brought us both good and bad. So, is the onus now on common people to widen their horizons and not give in to every piece of information that may seem believable? Or should influencers take their responsibility much more seriously?
