Mikhail Varshavski, D.O., more widely known as Doctor Mike to his 29 million followers, noticed eight years ago the growing influence of online content creators who were peddling misleading health claims and medical myths. What he didn't see on social media were qualified healthcare professionals sharing credible medical information.
Varshavski, a board-certified family medicine physician and content creator, launched his YouTube channel in 2017 to educate the public about their health, review the latest medical research, debunk dangerous myths and combat misinformation—and to post some videos of his two dogs. Now considered the most-followed doctor in the world, his YouTube videos, including video versions of his podcast "The Checkup with Doctor Mike," as well as his Facebook and Instagram posts, get tens of millions of views per month.
Social media gives qualified healthcare professionals a way to engage with patients on a broad scale and educate the public on health issues from vaccines to nutrition to misleading TikTok medical advice. But many of the most trusted and credible voices aren't there, missing out on a big opportunity to connect with the public, Varshavski told attendees at the Fierce Pharma Week 2025 conference in Philadelphia this week.
"All the knowledge in the world is useless unless you can connect with the human who's sitting in front of you. Social media is exactly like that. We've lost the connection to what makes science useful: humans, patients, families," he said during an onstage interview Wednesday. "Social media is a tool to reach those people, and the bad actors, the people who are selling snake oil, have fully learned it. They study the algorithms, they understand what works, and they're able to get huge success in their messaging—so much so that they get millions of views on their content."
Meanwhile, he added, "when the major health organizations put out a message, it gets 10 likes."
Healthcare organizations often talk about meeting patients where they are, and social media is that place, particularly for younger audiences. In the absence of credible voices on social media, bad actors will fill the void, misleading the public on health issues, Varshavski noted.
"I'm a family medicine doctor by training, so I'm used to being there for my patients in labor and delivery, emergencies, inpatient stays, nursing homes. But one place where I saw doctors weren't was social media," he said. "All my loved ones, all my friends, almost all my patients, the first time they get a diagnosis or they feel a symptom, they open their phones and they go on social media. It's natural to do that. So, us being snobby in the medical community and saying we're above social media was a mistake. We allowed misinformation."
During the COVID-19 pandemic, misinformation thrived online as information changed quickly and many in the public were confused by health policy decisions.
"There was no one there to fact-check," Varshavski said. "I was a young doctor. I was three years out of my residency, and I was the most-watched doctor on YouTube presenting accurate information. Why me? It should have been the leaders in the CDC, the leaders in the FDA, but because they held their noses up at social media, they would get 10 likes on a post."
He continued, "I see leaders at [the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)] and at the CDC talk about how they break down information for people, but they go on the same three networks that are watched by the same people. They have a 30-second sound bite that influences no one, and they think they're doing a good job. We need to cross paths with people who disagree with us. We need to be open to debate, discussion, understanding, civility, transparency, and, when we do that, we can change people's lives."
In March, Varshavski sat down with 17 vaccine skeptics for a debate about the safety and health benefits of vaccines. That video got 11 million views.
"I learned so much how they are as humans, how they got to their position. It was less about arguing and more about seeing. We changed minds that day. We got million of views on a long-form video educating about vaccines," he said Wednesday. "So when I see some of my colleagues that are way smarter than me, that are better researchers, that have better knowledge not take the opportunity to educate using social media, it's solely a failure of the system."
Surveys show public trust in healthcare institutions, including government health agencies and health systems, has declined significantly since the COVID pandemic.
"It breaks my heart when I see a patient completely distrust a company that is making a medication that could save their life, that could improve their life, that could prevent them or their children from getting sick. That tells me that there's a break in trust, which means that there's a break in communication," Varshavski said.
Under the Trump administration, there have been seismic policy shifts, with significant funding cuts to public health and scientific research, changing vaccine policies and upheaval at the HHS.
In the current climate, there is an urgent need for credible voices online, Doctor Mike told the Fierce Pharma Week audience. Health influencers, pharmas and the healthcare industry can collaborate to rebuild public trust and improve public health communication, he noted, but the key is to create content that is transparent, authentic, educational and valuable.
"If pharma, if influencers, if the health industry, all come together with an approach of honesty, integrity and transparency, I think everyone can be a little bit more on the same path," he said.
Medical organizations and lawmakers are finally "waking up" to see the value of engaging with the public on social media, he said, adding, "It takes time [to build trust]. It takes multiple appearances. It takes months. It takes years of being transparent, being honest and fostering that connection with your patients, your constituents, with your clients. And I think that if we invest in it today, we will see the dividends here in the future."
The content creator also addressed the Trump administration's move this week to rein in direct-to-consumer drug advertising. The measure directs the FDA to take actions to ensure transparency and accuracy in drug advertising, including by increasing the amount of information presented related to any product risks.
The administration said it also plans to scrutinize social media companies and influencers paid to promote pharmaceutical products to ensure they are following the same rules as drugmakers to disclose potential risks and treatment side effects.
Responsible healthcare content creators already play by the rules, Varshavski said, as they have robust oversight in place, carefully consider promotional partnerships and are transparent about sponsorships. Credible healthcare professionals who create online content are knowledgeable about regulations and know how to speak authentically about medications as well as the risks and side effects, in the same way they would speak to patients in the exam room, he added.
"There's a way to talk about pharmaceuticals, to talk about new devices that are coming out in a way that's responsible and actually useful to our patients," he explained.
Varshavski said he believes responsible content creation "gives us an opportunity to educate the public" about pharmaceutical and medical device breakthroughs.
"I think the more that we turtle in and shy away from having conversations with people who perhaps view the pharmaceutical industry or the medical device industry as evil, we lose an opportunity to educate," he said. "For me as a physician, we constantly have patients coming in that are skeptical, they don't know what to believe. I view it as an opportunity to get on the same page, to allow that person to feel seen."
He added, "When you do that, you can actually get some of the biggest breakthroughs in education. And I encourage everyone in the room to take that as an opportunity."