Did you hear about a doctor who was banned from practicing medicine based on her TikTok profile? It’s true! As an influencer lawyer, our founder, Ethan Wall, helps protect and grow businesses that use social media. Sometimes, we represent doctors and medical professionals about the do’s and don’ts for using social media to help promote their practice.
Ethan recently discovered a surgeon named Dr. Roxy who lost her medical license for live streaming surgery on a patient while she was doing Q&A with some of her followers. Let’s dive into the details.
Dr. Roxy had a wildly popular TikTok channel with hundreds of thousands of followers. She would post medical information, photos and videos of patients, and even pre-and-postoperative pictures. But it seems that Dr. Roxy took her social media activities too far.
According to the notice of suspension that was available online from the Ohio Medical Board, Dr. Roxy had been warned twice in a four-year period of time about the importance of maintaining the privacy of her patient’s photos and videos. Notwithstanding this, she then livestreamed a surgery on TikTok while she was looking up at the camera and doing a Q&A with her followers during the surgery itself.
Specifically, in one case cited by the medical board, Dr. Roxy was looking and speaking to the camera while performing liposuction on a patient’s abdomen. During a livestream broadcast, that patient suffered a perforated bowel and ended up in the emergency room with loss of brain function from toxins in the blood.
After receiving reports of a few other patients that had been injured by Dr. Roxy, the Ohio State Medical Board suspended her license in the fall of 2022 pending a further investigation and some hearings, and just last recently, the Ohio State Medical Board made its final decision. They voted to permanently revoke the medical license of Dr. Roxy in the state of Ohio.
One of the board members said, “it is not appropriate to put patients in danger for the social media world. Dr. Roxy’s social media persona was more important to her and the lives of her patients she treated. As a result, Dr. Roxy is no longer able to practice medicine in the state of Ohio due in part to her live streaming her patients’ surgeries on TikTok.”
So, what does this mean for you? If you’re a doctor or medical professional, should you delete your TikTok account and no longer use social media? No, of course not! You can use social media to help promote your practice and teach people about the wonderful ways that you can help them, but you need to do so responsibly.
Here are a few recommendations or tips from our influencer attorney you might consider as part of your practice:
You should maintain social media guidelines to make sure that you’re using social media in a way that is responsible and that keeps patients safe. Your guidelines should include things like, how you are going to handle HIPAA laws or private patient information in your social media content. Bonus tip: you shouldn’t be sharing Private Patient Information and you shouldn’t encourage other people to share their private information, as well.
You also want to use certain types of disclosures or disclaimers when appropriate. Include phrases such as, “I’m providing medical information and not medical advice,” or, “I’m a doctor, but I’m not your doctor, so you should seek the advice of your doctor.”
The second thing you should do if you are going to share photos or videos of your patients is to have informed written consent so they’re aware and give permission for you to use their image on social media. Without this, your patients can feel harmed or violated if they see their content online without their permission. So, making sure that patients know and understand is going to create great social media content and an even better relationship for you and your patients.
This one speaks for itself, but hopefully this situation helped bring that to light.
Not sure if the content you’re posting meets legal guidelines? We’re here to help. As a social media lawyer for doctors, Ethan has you covered on all things to make sure you and your content are safe online. Just give us a call or send a message to get started.
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