Monica Carter, a nurse practitioner specializing in obstetrics and gynecology, appears on a TikTok screen, saying she is seeing so much “trich” in her clinic.
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Trichomonas is a sexually transmitted infection caused by a parasite, not a virus, she tells her 15,000 followers.
“It is supercurable, and it’s rampant and common, and honestly, it’s not tested with routine testing. I am seeing it every day,” she exclaims on her post, which elicited more than 36,500 likes.
For decades, medical wisdom was dispensed exclusively within exam rooms and clinics. But social media has moved healthcare education from traditional offices into the palms of millions through mobile platforms like TikTok and Instagram.
Carter says she jumped onto TikTok after filming a quick video about a “patient situation” in her Washington, D.C., clinic and watched it instantly explode. “Everyone was like, ‘We love this. Can you do this more?’” she said. She since has posted on women’s health issues and said followers frequently comment that their own doctors had never explained conditions like fibroid endometriosis or premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) so clearly.
“I love to give valid, reliable, evidence-based information on social media,” Carter told more than 500 health professionals at the recent 2026 Health Foundation of South Florida Black Health Summit in Pembroke Pines. “I do it more as health education, not medical advice, so that others can empower themselves and advocate for themselves when they’re seen in their doctor’s office.”
Carter noted that topics like menopause, perimenopause, and IUDs are currently driving massive engagement on TikTok. Rather than bringing in myths, patients are arriving at appointments highly informed, requesting specific treatments like Hormone Replacement Therapy with a nuanced understanding of the risks.
“Our young patients don’t Google anything; they go into TikTok and type in ‘birth control,’” Carter said. “It’s happening, and if you can’t beat them, join them. I’m just out there trying to make sure they get great information.”
Roughly 41% of all major health and wellness influencers on social media are credentialed healthcare professionals (including doctors, nurses, physical therapists, and dermatologists), according to a new survey from the Pew Research Center. They command millions of followers across high-traffic platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube.
Finding the falsehoods
Public health expert Dr. Michael Forde, with 300,000 TikTok followers, said he uses his social platform to educate and bridge the gap between history and health outcomes. He said his goal is to be trusted by his followers for health information and remain objective and entirely “fact-checkable” to counteract the noise of unverified online medical advice.
Yet medical falsehoods on social media do influence health decisions.
Dr. Matthew Facciani, a public health misinformation researcher at Yale University, noted that a cancer treatment decision is about as high-consequence as a health decision gets, yet it is unusually prone to a confusing and dangerous online information environment. Patients tend to respond to who makes them feel seen during a difficult time in their lives, he said. This matters because cancer falsehoods online are directly linked to higher rates of death, studies have found.
“Platforms reward engagement, and content built on fear or hope tends to outperform careful, hedged accuracy,” Facciani said.
Across YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter, low-quality content gets more views, more likes, and more shares than accurate content, he said.
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“There’s a difference between being credentialed and being trusted,” he said. “Trust is built through relationship and feeling heard, and expert content sometimes moves to correction before doing that relational work.”
What would actually help, “is (medical experts) showing up consistently rather than only in response to a viral claim,” Facciani said.
Moving from online to in-person
While Forde actively embraces his role as a digital health advocate, he draws a firm line when patients substitute algorithms and feeds for actual clinical care.
According to a June 2026 ehealth survey, 49% of insured Americans have used AI tools for medical advice, and 63% of these have acted on the guidance they received without consulting a doctor.
“I don’t think that doctors should ever be replaced,” Forde said. “At the end of the day, they’re the people who are seeing you and doing the research.”
In doctors’ offices, this digital influx of health information requires a new style of patient interaction, say South Florida physicians.
Dr. Michelle Kirwan, a Miami pediatrician, educates online through a podcast called Black Health. “It’s an opportunity to extend my reach beyond the exam room,” she said.
However, she uses the concept of “loud listening” in the exam room — being fully open and receptive to the information patients bring from their social feeds.
“A misleading messenger can make harm feel believable,” Kirwan said.
Kirwan said she had a teenage patient struggling with an eating disorder who finally began recovering only after spending a month at a summer camp without her phone. The teen later revealed to Kirwan that she had been following a glamorous influencer who actively encouraged extreme weight loss.
“I realized I have to really be listening to that social conversation that is happening so that I can get in front of it,” Kirwan said. “I have to show my patients proof that this is why something is incorrect or correct.”
“I learned my lesson that day.”
South Florida Sun Sentinel health reporter Cindy Goodman can be reached at [email protected].
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Check your health facts
Tips for finding and vetting reliable health information online
- Look for verified, regulated credentials in the specific field an expert is discussing. A chiropractor is not a substitute for a pediatrician.
- Be highly skeptical of unregulated terms like health coach.
- Evaluate a claim to see what the creator stands to gain from it. (Are they selling you a supplement or master class?)
- Be highly suspicious of content that offers simple, absolute solutions to complex medical conditions.
- Watch out for cherry-picking: Unreliable accounts will often pull a single, poorly designed study out of context to back up a wild claim.
- Social media platforms feed you what you engage with. If you want a healthier timeline, start actively following content from reliable sources: major research hospitals, government health agencies, and credentialed professionals.
Sources: Dr. Matthew Facciani, American Medical Association, HHS.gov