How Otolaryngologists Are Using Social Media for Networking, Patient Education, Study Recruitment, and More

by Katie Robinson •

Medical Professionals versus Non-Medical Influencers: Who’s Gaining More Views?

A recent study assessed the quality of sinusitis-related videos on TikTok uploaded by non-medical influencers, lay individuals, and medical professionals (Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2024;170:1456-1466). The researchers identified 221 videos that gained more than 300 million views and one million shares. Almost half of the videos were published by non-medical influencers, yet only 47% of the videos posted by non-medical influencers were factual. Meanwhile, 84% of videos posted by medical professionals and 80% posted by lay uploaders were factual. Compared with videos by medical professionals, non-medical and lay uploaders were more likely to have unsafe harm/benefit scores, misunderstood videos, and lower Global Quality Scale scores.

The survey’s corresponding author, Chris Roxbury, MD, associate professor in the section of otolaryngology–head and neck surgery at the University of Chicago, wrote, “Information provided by healthcare providers was generally higher quality/more factual than that of influencers. However, there were significantly more posts and views by non-medical influencers, and these posts were unlikely to be factual. Therefore, it may be more likely that an individual seeking medical advice will come across a non-factual post than one from a healthcare provider.”

“Given that quality health-related information from healthcare professionals may be overshadowed by non-factual and potentially harmful information, future initiatives may be to encourage dissemination of more accurate information via individual healthcare providers utilizing social media, and perhaps to create/popularize social media accounts at the medical society level that can provide patients with more reliable information.”

Lead author Rose Dimitroyannis, MD candidate at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, wrote, “For medical professionals interested in creating educational content online, there may be some things to learn from social media professionals that can help increase engagement and the dissemination of valuable medical information.”

“Our findings suggest that medical professionals could improve their videos by using subtitles and visuals to emphasize key points, breaking down dense information into smaller parts, and citing reliable sources so viewers are able to do further research.”

“Finally, it is important for physicians to understand that regardless of their relationship to social media, many of their patients are coming in with information they have found online. Familiarizing oneself with the landscape of medical information online can only help to better care for these patients.”