Family medicine resident, University of Minnesota Physicians
Doctors as social media influencers is a rapidly growing niche — and few play the game as well as Dr. Rose Marie Leslie. She was among the first physicians to use TikTok effectively, first to discuss the vaping crisis and later to keep young people educated about the coronavirus pandemic. The videos work because they’re funny: Despite the occasionally heavy subject matter, Leslie keeps them light and engaging.
As a result, she has accumulated more than 800,000 followers on TikTok. Several of her coronavirus videos made at the height of the outbreak this year were viewed more than four million times.
“Especially with teens, there’s a craving to find health professionals they can confide in, someone who can be honest and real with them,” Leslie told the Pioneer Press, her hometown paper, in June. “The user base on TikTok is adolescents, so it is the perfect venue.”
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