CHECK WHAT YOU READ, SEE AND HEAR.
Creating awareness is the idea behind these new activities where doctors spring up in social media which has rapid, extensive penetration into society. Health tips in their concerned speciality, videos showing procedures/ surgeries, feedback of patients are some potential ways to reach out to the public.
Social media boom has brought in the prospect of IT professionals bringing in innovation to these activities by adding comical videos/memes to the awareness intended to be created. Quality of these awareness campaign (in fact at times its promotional campaign of the doctor for his survival in clinical practice) is as good/ bad as the professional who creates it.
Some doctors go beyond their specialities in which they are not trained and give advice. Followers depending on what google throws at them early in their scrolling spree tend to assimilate their ideas without checking the veracity of the statements made.
These new age DACTORS often in the race to get attention, professional mileage from public digresses into spheres about which they lack professional knowledge. People who are faithful to the content are ignorant about the ignorance of the content creator. This misleads the people whoever views/ subscribes to these feeds.
Onus is on the viewers to confirm the veracity of the scientific statement made by these DACTORS . Most difficult task to identify real doctors from these Dactors.
Ever evolving digital world is teeming with health information which a common man need not know always. Ignorance is better than wrong knowledge.