Social Media is a funny place. We’re all used to seeing countless celebrities flaunting themselves in Instagram stories, or the endless stream of “lifestyle bloggers” writing about how to decorate your house for fall, and what nail polish goes with auburn hair highlights. There is a new breed of blogger (and vlogger!) making waves across the platforms; the medical professionals.
While medicine may not seem like the sexiest topic to be getting excited about, it’s something that we all have to interact with daily. Medicine is global, and as we see right now, global health is just as vital as personal health.
When it comes to discussing medicine, though, where do we turn? Good old WebMD is a popular choice, but you’ll usually come away from most articles assuming you’re at death’s door and getting your info from “Doctor Google” is never a recommended course of action by any medical practitioner.
The New Wave of Medical Bloggers.
Enter the new breed, the doctor blogs, the general medical academic blogs, and the nursing blogs taking social media by the horns and making waves. Giving proper advice, in an easy to digest, sometimes funny way that makes everyone feel good, even when the topic can be scary.
Blogs come in all shapes and sizes. Some are more focused on academia and research, other son healthcare reform, and others on everyday life as a doctor, a nurse, or another type of medical practitioner. Some blogs are fun, others are serious, and others sit nicely in the middle.
Here are a few of favorite medical bloggers of 2020:
The Nerdy Nurse – The Nerdy Nurse blog has been going for just over ten years and is a multi-award-winning blog run by a registered and licensed nurse, Brittney Wilson.
Brittney hosts articles on a range of topics from the education requirements of nurses, to the best pack lunches for nursing to take to work, and she even writes reviews on various pieces of equipment (like the best professional clogs for nursing!).
The Nerdy Nurse is an active brand across all major social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest.
The Frugal Nurse – is a blog started 7 years ago by an anonymous healthcare professional who writes about her fears in the health care sector.
Her blogs are definitely more on the serious and sobering side, but she has won awards for nursing blog of the year in 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019. Her motto for her blog is simplistic and to the point: Be informed. Stay healthy. Save money.
Nurse Barb – Nurse Barb Dehn is a practicing Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner and an award-winning author who has been blogging on her platform for many years.
Barb Dehn’s approachable and current style makes her a popular blogger in her field, and she has even branched out to include a video section to her website.
Nurse Barb specializes in blogs dedicated to women’s health, but many posts, like her most recent blogs on DIY mask making, are unisex in nature. She is not only a popular blogger and author, but she’s active across many other social media channels, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.
KevinMD – KevinMD is a website founded in 2004 by physician Kevin Pho. Unlike the other blogs we’ve listed here, KevinMD is a platform designed to allow other advanced practitioners to share their stories, either using their own name or anonymously.
KevinMD is popular across the web, and on all of the platforms it has a presence, they cite over 3 million monthly page views to their main website and over 250,000 followers on Twitter and Facebook, making them a well-respected platform for the industry.
The Medical YouTubers.
Did you know that the world’s second-largest search engine is actually YouTube? Due to the nature of the video, being intrinsically linked with putting yourself in front of a camera, the barrier to entry for YouTube seems to be high for most in the professional field. Still, there is a growing band of medical professionals taking to the platform to share their knowledge and experiences within their particular fields.
The YouTube audience is known to be very loyal, ad videos with themes such as “Doctor reacts to…” seem to be a very popular choice. Still, these professionals are also using their channels to share important news, especially in light of the recent COVID-19 global pandemic.
Mama Doctor Jones – Doctor Danielle Nicole Jones is an American OB/GYN and mom to four, working at Baylor Scott & White Medical Center in College Station in Texas.
Her social media personality is entertaining and bubbly, often using stuffed toys to explain complex medical procedures like breech birth and prolapsed uterus. Her channel is focused on women’s health within the obstetrics and gynecology fields, and some of her most popular videos are reactions to popular medial TV shows such as House MD and Call the Midwife.
While Doctor Danielle’s YouTube Channel is her main focus, she also runs a popular blog and Instagram page, where she shares personal stories about life as a mom as well as life as a doctor.
Doctor Mike – Doctor Mikhail Varshavski, most commonly known online as Doctor Mike, is a Russian–American family medicine doctor working in New York. His YouTube channel boasts over 5.4 million subscribers and provides “medically-themed entertainment”. While Doctor Mike does indeed go into detail and explain the medical science behind many things, he is famous for videos with a reaction theme either to popular medical TV series, like Scrubs or to medical memes.
Doctor Mike runs an Instagram account and has his own line of merchandise. He hit fame back in 2015 when he was voted People Magazine’s “Sexiest Doctor Alive” and can regularly be seen poking fun at himself and his own celebrity status.
Recently both Doctor Mike and Mama Doctor Jones have been using their platform of nearly 6 million fans, to speak out with facts and information surrounding the COVID-19 global pandemic, and to dispel some of the biggest myths and fake news.
