VIRTUAL PRESENCE
TikTok Takes on FOAMed
SAEM PULSE | NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2022
By Steven Haywood, MD, on behalf of the SAEM Virtual Presence Committee
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Every day in the United States, 105 million hours of short form videos are viewed on the platform TikTok. In fact, TikTok has been the most downloaded app for the past three years. The success of TikTok has driven other social media platforms to offer options for short format videos. This explosion in short format video has presented medical educators and public health advocates with a unique opportunity to communicate important health information and education. Here are some tips gleaned from some of the early literature regarding this format.
Create Factual, Evidencebased Content!
When creating short form videos for the purpose of public health education, factual accuracy is most important. With the COVID-19 pandemic, inaccurate
“When creating short form videos for the purpose of public health education, factual accuracy is most important.” public health information caused doubts in our health care system. Vaccination rates quickly stalled due to misinformation. Many lives were lost because of medical misinformation. The allure of viral status may cause some to drift from the underlying goal of dissemination of factual, high-quality information. Medical misinformation on TikTok has been found in at least 11.6% of videos claiming to be “for the purpose of medical education.”
Conversely, a review of health education videos by Om et.al., found that content published by physicians was most likely to be factual. We need physicians to create medical education and public health content!
Consistency is King!
A group of researchers in China led by Chengyan Zhu evaluated how TikTok was being used for public health information dissemination. They found
