These doctors share medical knowledge on Tiktok. 'If I recommend hormone cream, I am almost called murderer'

Almost daily doctor Stefan van Rooijen gets people in his practice in Asten who say they are « so tired ». They want a blood test because they « probably have a deficiency ». If he asks why they think that, he often hears that an influencer said in a video that every Dutch woman has an iron deficiency. A study of the World Health Organization serves as proof.

« Then you go looking that article and you see that it is about African women, » sighs Van Rooijen. « But after the video you are in the shopping basket of that influencer. » You can order supplements immediately.

As a dermatologist, Annemie Galimont has to deal with patients with eczema, a chronic skin condition that is fueled by numerous external and internal factors. With a good hormone cream you can go a long way.

Galimont regularly gets parents in her consultation room who have put their children on all kinds of diets to get rid of the condition. « Then you see eczema of those children who have exploded, where the pus drips from that mother is just not called for killer when I propose hormone cream. » There are all kinds of misconceptions about hormone ointment: it would make your skin thinner, inhibit your growth and even have a addictive effect.

Passing information is indispensable in medical practice. Out of one survey Doctors' federation KNMG and the NOS showed last year that more than half of the nearly seven hundred doctors have dealt with that every week. Make it 'almost daily', say Van Rooijen and Galimont. Websites of recognized medical institutions contain enough information about how to deal with medical disorders, but that is not where (potential) patients look for answers to their questions, practice learns.

GP Stefan van Rooijen From Tiktokkanaal Doctors today.

Dermatologist Annemie Galimont From Tiktokkanaal Doctors today.

Explanations

To close that gap, Van Rooijen and Galimont joined the Tiktok channel last year Doctors todayan initiative of Tiktok production company Prappers Media Group. With the channel, doctors with a variety of disciplines are connected – in addition to the general practitioner and the dermatologist, for example, an internist, cardiologist and gynecologist – who make unpaid explanations about common questions in medical practice. What does the HPV virus entail? How do you get the irritable intestinal syndrome under control? How do I know if Vapen is harming my lungs?

The choice fell on Tiktok because of the powerful algorithm: the social medium is very precisely measured the interest of the consumer. If you look at a video about eczema, Tiktok knows that you want to know more about it. Somewhere in that queue with videos about the skin condition, doctors want to end up today. « We are not donquichots, we share reliable medical information to offer the whole pot of nonsense.

Doctors's videos today have no bells and bells, they are not catchy Mounted but rather … « boring, » laughs Van Rooijen. « That is very conscious.

Sixties

Since the launch in April 2024, the videos have been viewed millions of times. And not just because of so -called Digital Natives: Under the viewers are just as many people in their fifties and sixties as young people.

In order to better empathize with the online world of its patients, Galimont has a « peek account » on social media, in which she can watch undisturbed. There she regularly comes across videos in which her own content is ridiculed.

We share reliable medical information as a counterweight against that whole pot of nonsense

Sunscreen is also such a subject that people can make furious, she says. « I come across a lot of skin cancer and a lot of research simply shows that burning and chronic exposure to the sun have extremely safe sunscreen, but then you have those people who claim that it is carcinogenic that you have to do 'sun training'. »

Galimont: « If there are two things, it is not to use sunscreen and to say that, but I am told that I am a play ball of the pharmaceutical industry.

Coil

General practitioner Van Rooijen also recognizes that image. He made a video about placing a IUD and was then « attacked considerably ». « I am a man so I can say nothing about it at all, they say: I place a coil every other week. »

« It is true that men have to take more responsibility in contraception, and that only research has been done into women, » says Van Rooijen. « But let's be a little more nuanced and better substantiated about the pill: that is simply the best medical invention of the past fifty years.

« Most people are good, let's put that first, » says Galimont. « But that is a small group of keyboard heroes that have been hanging on my house, I have been hiding on the couch.

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