We are living in a new age of medical misinformation. The snake oil salesmen and panacea peddlers of the past had to pull their wagons from town to town or shout their messages through snail-mail advertising. But in today’s world of widespread social media and AI-generated answers, people are surrounded by sources of misinformation.
A recent study from the Physicians Foundation showed that 61% of doctors say they recently encountered patients who’d been influenced, and in some cases influenced “a great deal,” by medical misinformation. 86% of doctors said that in the past five years, they’ve seen an overall increase in patients believing medical misinformation.
That timeframe is crucial, because it reaches back to the start of the COVID pandemic–a period where medical misinformation surged to unprecedented heights. Its spread was aided by another, equally unprecedented event: the rapid growth of TikTok and short-form video. TikTok and other platforms benefited enormously from COVID lockdowns, since more people than ever had time to watch content and create it.
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During the height of COVID, content platforms made an effort to reign in medical misinformation. In the years since, however, they have relaxed their misinformation policies. YouTube is even reinstating channels that were banned for spreading COVID conspiracies.
So where does that leave us? In a world where misinformation is easier to spread than ever, where more and more people are asking untrustworthy AIs for answers about their health, where the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has a documented history of spreading medical conspiracies, and where bogus supplements are selling like hotcakes.
This is where Dr. Fran comes in.
A board-certified OB/GYN, she graduated from Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2017. Like many people, she joined Instagram without any intention of becoming an “influencer.” For years, she shared her outfits of the day and other lifestyle posts.
Then COVID and TikTok happened.
“I was on TikTok a lot through the pandemic,” Dr. Fran tells Tubefilter. “It really took off, and the For You page starts to learn what you like and what you’re interested in, so it saw that I was interested in labor and delivery and related stuff.”
As the algorithm fed her videos about her area of expertise, though, Dr. Fran realized: some of what she was seeing wasn’t factual.
@pagingdrfran
“I would see videos where I was like, ‘Well, that’s not actually correct.’ Or it was like, ‘That person is misunderstanding something.’ So I figured, well, I’m now a trained OB/GYN with a history in content creation. Why don’t I just start making videos?”
The first video she made addressed a common myth about breastfeeding: that, if you go out for a drink, you have to “pump and dump” your milk because it’ll be tainted with the alcohol and not safe for your baby. That’s not accurate, Dr. Fran said. Instead, as she explained in a later video, alcohol is metabolized out of breast milk at the same rate it leaves your blood, so if you just wait a couple hours post-booze, your milk will be safe again.
Being able to platform accurate information was fulfilling for Dr. Fran, and she started making several videos per week–all while continuing to see patients on a full-time basis.
That side of things actually hasn’t changed. Dr. Fran started posting videos in 2021, and in the five years since, has produced hundreds of videos and grown her following to nearly 700,000 people. At the same time, she’s remained a practicing OB/GYN, holds a leadership position at her hospital, and is raising three kids alongside her husband, who’s also in the medical field.
For Dr. Fran, who does all filming, editing, and other video tasks herself, managing consistent content creation has come down to two key things: compartmentalization, and support from Viral Nation.
On the compartmentalization front, Dr. Fran has content creation time from seven a.m. until 8:30. Her first upload set the blueprint for the rest of her content: her videos are often prompt responses to fresh misinformation she encounters from day to day.
“I do not plan anything ahead,” she says. She adds that, on top of misinformation-hunting, “I look to see what’s going on in health news. If there was a study released, I’ll take it and address it.”
https://www.tiktok.com/@pagingdrfran/video/7282484352305368351
To date, Dr. Fran’s produced over 1,000 uploads–so if a topic she’s already addressed re-emerges, she’ll repost that video.
“I’m probably only making three to four new videos a week now,” she says. “I recycle old videos because I’ve already done the work, so I might as well use it.”
Many of the creators we’ve interviewed have gone full-time or are laying plans to make content creation their sole job. Dr. Fran says that’s not in the cards for her. While making content has allowed her to become a visible advocate for medical truth, her #1 passion is being a boots-on-the-ground doctor.
“I see myself doing more of the same,” she says. “I’m going to keep doing my day-to-day clinical work. I’m going to continue doing my hospital leadership role.”
What she will do is continue taking opportunities she earned through her content–like this past October, when Sen. Elizabeth Warren invited her to speak to lawmakers about the importance of affordable healthcare.
As we mentioned above, Dr. Fran is working with Viral Nation, which says it has become the top agency in the medical/health creator category. It currently represents more than 35 medical and health creators, and in 2025, ran over 60 sponsorship campaigns with these creators and brands they trust.
Everett Champion, the Viral Nation talent agent who represents Dr. Fran and is developing this category, says one of the agency’s goals with medical/health creators is to help them build lengthy relationships with brands that align with their ethical principles.
“The medical/health wellness perspective on social media is new,” Champion says. “Something we’re trying to do is continually finding partnerships that make sense, but also prioritizing more long-term partnerships. We’re not working with 25 brands and trying to plug everyone around. We’re trying to find brands that we can build a relationship with, do more work together and build out.”
But what if a doctor or other medical professional isn’t comfortable taking a sponsorship for their content? That’s cool, Champion says. Viral Nation also works to find things like speaking engagements for creators in this niche.
“That’s also something that is a big world for us, for someone who manages a lot of medical talent,” Champion says. “It’s interesting to see where different people are activated and where people want to go. I have some creators who don’t do any brand deals at all, but they do tons of talks and speaking engagements.”
The bottom line, he says, is “There is a world out here in terms of being a content creator and being a healthcare provider.”
“A lot of the talents I talk to are like, ‘I am so busy and never thought this would be something I can do.’ But Fran is such a great example of the perfect creator, where if you want to do this, you make time for socials. You get into a good routine where you’re carving out time, setting a posting schedule, then coming to an agency who understands those things,” he says. “There is a world out there and so much money to be made. I think social media can seem daunting, but if you just start doing it, there are opportunities out there.”
Viral Nation is a Tubefilter partner.
