Medfluencers and Patient Education: Helpful or Risky?

How future doctors are navigating social media’s impact on public education. How can a well-meaning medfluencer be sure they’re actually helping? M1 Zach Grissom, M2 Fallon Jung, M3 Jeff Goddard, and M4 Matt Engelken sit down with third-year DO student Nik Bletnitsky to discuss the role of social media in medical education. Current and Future doctors are increasingly using these platforms to share medical knowledge—but, even if you’re careful to offer the best information, what are the hidden dangers? The conversation covers the sometimes blurry line between education, misinformation, and contradicting someone’s doctor’s advice. How disclaimers work (or don’t), and why the Dunning-Kruger effect can turn a curious patient into an overconfident self-diagnoser. Should doctors be influencers? Can patients trust what they see online? And is it possible to make medical knowledge accessible without accidentally making things worse?

Om Podcasten

The longest running med school podcast, The Short Coat features a variety cast of medical students from the University of Iowa, offering is a brutally honest look at medicine, med school, and what life is like here at the margins of medicine. Skip this show if you'd prefer not to know and hate laughter. Our opinions and those of guests are definitely not those of the University of Iowa, the state of Iowa, or anyone else. Try not to get your stethoscope in a twist about it!