The Doctor is ‘On’

“Our tagline is, ‘Let us edit out the noise and bring you medicine without misinformation,’” said Jessica Gray, MD, (Residency ’18, Medicine ’15), a clinical assistant professor at TTUHSC who also is online — she cohosts “The Med Edit Podcast,” which debuted in January 2024. Like Jones, Gray and cohost Cari Sorrell, MD, use casual conversation and humor to bring medical information to a lay audience. Gastroenterologist Sameer Islam, MD, MBA, (Medicine ’08) does much the same with his YouTube channel, “Let’s Talk About Poop!” And dermatologists Luke Johnson, MD, (Residency ’17), and Michelle Tarbox, MD, (Medicine ’05) keep fellow practitioners up-to-date on dermatology research with their podcast “Dermasphere.”

Podcasts, in particular, are becoming more common. In 2020, the journal Cureus reported the existence of more than 200 medical podcasts, with the largest number — 32 — focusing on emergency medicine.

Regardless of the specific medium, being a social media influencer can be extraordinarily time consuming on top of an already demanding line of work. But those who do it say it’s well worth the effort.

“Patient education has always been a priority and a passion for me,” Jones said. “But I never imagined I would get to a point where I could put out a video and reach more people in a single day than I would have in my whole career.”

Jones’ first foray into social media was a blog she started in 2007 while still in college. She began blogging in earnest as a medical student, writing about medicine, travel and family. (She’s the mother of four, starting with twins born during her fourth year of medical school.) Jones set social media aside for a few years to concentrate on residency and her family; when she resumed, it was mostly on YouTube. She deliberately decided to take a casual, friendly approach, describing her online persona as “your friend who happens to be a gynecologist.”

“Sometimes you sit down for coffee, and you end up talking about your abnormal smear,” she said. Her goal, in part, is to demystify women’s medicine and help people be more comfortable seeking care when needed.

She devotes many of her videos to combating persistent myths: that birth control causes infertility, for instance, or that women need expensive hormone tests and supplements to ensure a healthy hormone balance.

Like others, Jones makes clear that she’s offering information and education, not medical advice, telling people, “I’m a doctor, but I’m not your doctor.”

Jones records most of her videos in a small camping trailer in her driveway and, until a year or two ago, was doing all of her own video editing and posting. She has since hired a research assistant and a production editor. Still, the work takes time — almost as much as her day job. She works three days a week at the hospital, reserving Mondays and Tuesdays for online content creation.

Jones’ influence has steadily grown; she has been interviewed by The New York Times, the BBC, CNN and “Good Morning America,” among other news media. In September 2023, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation flew her to New York to participate in the Goalkeepers conference, where reducing global maternal mortality was a primary topic.

She also hears about her impact in more personal ways — such as when she interviewed for her current job two years ago. “The department chair said, ‘I just want to let you know, my teenage girls follow your channel.’”

Dermatologists Luke Johnson and Michelle Tarbox have known each other since Johnson did his dermatology residency at TTUHSC, and Tarbox was his supervisor. Johnson is now an assistant professor of dermatology at the University of Utah, and Tarbox is interim chair of dermatology at TTUHSC.

About six years ago, Johnson told Tarbox about an idea he had: a podcast by dermatologists, for dermatologists, with an emphasis on recent scientific articles and their implications for patient care. The result is “Dermasphere,” with Johnson and Tarbox as cohosts. With a new hour-long show released every other week, the two have produced more than 130 episodes to date.

Discussions on the show are relatively technical, covering such topics as Langerhans cell histiocytosis in children, management of dysplastic nevi and the relative benefits of bimekizumab (known as Bimzelx) vs. secukinumab (known as Cosentyx) for treating plaque psoriasis. The show’s website includes links to the scholarly papers being discussed. But the conversation is casual and sprinkled with jokes, and while the primary audience is physicians and med students, Tarbox said it can also serve as a tool for patient education.

Despite the show’s niche audience, as many as 4,000 people tune in to a typical episode, and overall, the show has seen more than 400,000 individual plays.

Until 2022, Johnson and Tarbox also hosted a dermatology podcast for lay audiences called “Skincast.” It’s currently on hiatus, but they are considering restarting it.

A newer arrival is “The Med Edit Podcast,” hosted by family physician Jessica Gray and gastroenterologist Cari Sorrell. The idea grew out of conversations about how to reach a broader audience than just their patients and how to devote more time to specific health topics. “Cari and I just kept talking about how we wish we had more time with our patients than the little amounts we get in appointments, how to have longer discussions about things we’re passionate about,” Gray said.

Like other medical professionals, they also were eager to tackle the misconceptions heard over and over from their patients. No, drinking apple cider vinegar will not cure your acid reflux. No, colonoscopies are not only for men. No, more is not necessarily better when it comes to vitamins — excessive amounts of vitamins A, D, E and K can be toxic.

It took seven months of legal, marketing and production planning before the podcast was ready to launch. Since the first episode aired in January 2024, Gray and Sorrell have released 10 more, addressing skin care, obesity and GLP-1 medications, polycystic ovarian syndrome and heart disease in women, among other topics. For each episode, they bring a guest expert into the conversation, and the show notes on the web include links to resources for those wanting to learn more. Recently the TTUHSC Office of Continuing Medical Education (CME) granted accreditation to the “The Med Edit Podcast,” meaning medical students, residents and physicians can earn CME credits by listening to the show.

Gray and Sorrell are learning how to juggle the podcast with their day jobs and families (each has two young children). But they’re determined to keep it going. “We’re here to have fun with it and provide a service,” Gray said. “The point of this is not for us to get rich or famous. It’s for us to provide education to the community.”