Medical self media urgently needs to establish professional and compliant boundaries. How are the "internet famous doctors" that have changed their taste created-瞭望新时代网-瞭望时代，放眼世界

Medical self media urgently needs to establish professional and compliant boundaries. How are the "internet famous doctors" that have changed their taste created

2024-08-13

Recently, the Cyberspace Administration of China launched a special campaign nationwide to crack down on false and vulgar phenomena in the field of online live streaming, focusing on five prominent problems in the field, including "false science popularization" and "false knowledge" that confuse the public, impersonating professionals in finance, education, healthcare, justice and other fields, providing so-called "professional services" to sell goods and courses, and engaging in improper marketing. Under the lighting and background, the cameraman adjusted the image and turned on the lens. A doctor wearing a white coat stared at the camera, adjusting his emotions, occasionally glancing at the teleprompter on one side, with a smile on his face, speaking confidently. This is not a TV station recording a program, but rather some doctors who specialize in health education, who have become popular on the internet by shooting self media videos. They do science popularization and explain health knowledge on short video platforms and social media, and some have been turned into "internet famous doctors" with millions of followers. Are these video accounts operated by the doctors themselves? Where are the boundaries of medical and health self media? In this regard, a reporter from China Youth Daily and China Youth Net conducted in-depth interviews and found that these accounts have an operational chain behind them: doctors appear on camera, the operations department shoots, edits, and publishes content, and is responsible for advertising placement. The customer service department then maintains the comment section and replies to private messages, using "language" that can drive network traffic to convert fans into hospital patients. Under the operation of non professional and informal teams, there have been some "internet famous doctors" who provide so-called "professional services" to sell goods and courses, and carry out improper marketing, which has made some medical and health science popularization lose its flavor and appearance. Although not a medical worker, Jiang Yu (pseudonym) shuttles back and forth in the hospital every day despite knowing traffic passwords and being a "novice" in medical and health knowledge. In the morning, she started her day's work by accompanying doctors for ward rounds or consultations. She and the cameraman have a clear division of labor, with one person responsible for finding inspiration for topic selection and copywriting planning in the communication between doctors and patients, and the other person responsible for shooting materials. Jiang Yu is one of the leaders of a private hospital's self media operation team, leading 10 employees to operate a doctor's full platform account. She revealed that this doctor receives dozens of patients every day and does not have time to update video content. It is all handled by Jiang Yu and his assistant, from selecting topics and copywriting for graphics, videos, and live broadcasts, to directing, filming, editing, and publishing, to maintaining, replying to, and converting user data in the account backend, all of which need to be operated and maintained. In Jiang Yu's opinion, it is a common operating mode for hospitals to entrust the self media accounts of institutions or individual doctors to the operation team or internet celebrity incubation institutions (hereinafter referred to as "MCN institutions") for operation. And some institutions or individuals, in order to "get out of the circle" and gain "traffic", are willing to take some "unconventional" measures. It is reported that some "internet celebrity doctors" have dedicated "operation" teams behind them, and there are active new media operators on the platform, providing "recruitment" for medical science popularization accounts to increase traffic. A founder of an MCN organization, described by a platform as focusing on monetizing medical traffic, claimed in a video that in order to create a viral video, they need to search for 10 similar IPs with good traffic based on their expertise, sort out the top 20 videos from their content, and remake them in a 1:1 ratio. Such "account initiation strategies" are highly sought after on the platform. These 'operation teams' create an' internet celebrity doctor ', providing one-stop services starting from copywriting planning. They specialize in Internet traffic passwords, but some of them are "little white" in medical and health knowledge. Jiang Yu admitted that currently, there are no members with medical professional backgrounds in their team. Previously, there was a nursing student who was later transferred to the customer service department. When these non professionals wrote the copy, they "processed" the popular science content pieced together from the internet. Doctors only take a rough look before filming, and when they are busy, they even take it over and read it, which does not serve as a gatekeeper. Different doctors have their own specialties, but in some doctors' video accounts, there are many "miscellaneous discussions", such as what mosquitoes are natural enemies, how to fill out college entrance examination preferences, and other content that is not within the scope of a doctor's profession. Jiang Yu said, "Whatever content becomes popular, just ride on it and attract users first." Writing graphic and textual content is simpler, and operators are like tailors piecing together various pieces. In order to accumulate "bestsellers," they focus on the "title party" route, producing titles that are either alarmist or sell anxiety to attract attention. Chen Hao (pseudonym) is an obstetrician who has been promoting health knowledge on self media platforms since 2021. He said that science popularization work takes up most of his free time, sometimes even shooting short videos at 1am. Due to his busy work schedule, it is difficult for his account to maintain frequent updates. Last year, an MCN organization once offered him an "olive branch", but he gave up signing after checking several doctor accounts operated by the organization. A pediatrician is teaching everyone how to choose contact lenses, "Chen Hao said. Some medical science popularization accounts are just catering to the public's taste, rather than doing professional science popularization seriously. In order to attract more traffic, Jiang Yu and his team members make medical science popularization content as interesting as possible, even willing to "create scripts and stories". After the operators change the speed of the sound, it becomes a patient who has traveled a long distance to seek medical help. They will throw out topics that are easy to attract social attention, such as "Can a son's girlfriend be diagnosed and married?" "How scary it is for a young couple to deceive doctors when seeking medical treatment, not to be honest", or heartwarming stories like "My husband has been sick for 20 years, but my wife has always been by my side", in order to attract attention and create topics. Such videos have significantly more likes and comments, which will drive traffic, "Jiang Yu said." Young and expressive doctors can also arrange specialized script filming. "Similar medical self media filming phenomena are not uncommon. On January 3rd of this year, a pediatrician named Guo, who has 427000 followers, posted a video on his certified self media platform: After leaving the clinic, he found a mother and daughter who had taken a train from Guangxi to the waiting area to see a doctor. They didn't know how to book appointments and wanted to sleep overnight in the waiting area and register again the next day. Guo said in the video that he felt a pang of sadness and mixed emotions, wiping away the tears from the corners of his eyes. He was worried that his mother and daughter would get sick from a cold at night, so he worked overtime to see a doctor for his child. In the comment section of the video, many netizens were moved and praised the doctor's behavior. Later, some netizens discovered that the same "heartwarming" story appeared on the self media accounts of dozens of doctors across the country. These stories have highly similar storylines, even the opening words of the video are the same. Later, Guo admitted in a media interview that these contents were due to his propaganda team's "embellishment", and he only read them out from the script during filming. In addition to "script filming", some "pseudo science popularization" is more likely to lead people into misunderstandings. On a certain online platform, some short video creators showcase various so-called "vision recovery" techniques through "personal experience". These bloggers claim that as long as they train according to their methods, their vision can be significantly "improved" or even "restored", and they can go from deep myopia of 800 degrees to 100 degrees. In this regard, China Internet jointly refuted the rumor platform, emphasizing that there is no effective method to cure myopia in medicine at present, and only scientific correction and improvement of eye habits can avoid aggravation. Xing Yan, director of the Department of Neurology at the Aviation General Hospital, has been committed to medical science popularization work. She believes that doctors should treat medical science popularization videos correctly, pay attention to social hot topics and public needs, and carry out professional science popularization and publicity on common diseases, health misconceptions, and other issues, rather than pursuing "traffic is king". At the same time, she reminds the public to remain rational, improve their health literacy, and carefully identify and screen medical information on the internet to avoid being misled by false information. In the view of Jiang Yu and the operations team, it is not easy to find a doctor who is suitable for creating a personal IP (personal brand - journalist's note) on the internet. There are nearly 10 doctors in her hospital, and they are trying to open self media accounts for 5 doctors. Only two doctors have the potential to become "internet celebrities", and currently there are over 6 million fans across the internet. With traffic, "internet celebrity doctors" can use it to "monetize". They can drain patients to the hospital and also provide online consultations. Some MCN institutions will screen users with needs and match them with collaborating doctors, who will serve as health management consultants to guide people's daily habits, dietary habits, and health needs. Jiang Yu often communicates with her peers and has found that most MCN institutions that focus on medical science popularization accounts have dedicated customer service teams. After the popular science content is released, the doctor's account is handed over to the customer service department. Customer service personnel are responsible for replying to comments or private messages, and directing traffic to the hospital. The platform won't care because the consultation process happens outside the platform, "Jiang Yu revealed. After sending a private message to a doctor account operated by an MCN institution on a certain platform, I immediately received an automatic reply message containing a link. Clicking on the link leads me to a third-party platform where I need to fill in information such as the patient's confirmed disease type, time of illness, and phone number. The next day, the reporter received a customer service call from the hospital, who claimed to be the doctor's assistant and sent the hospital address, inviting them to come for consultation. Jiang Yu admitted that the two doctor self media accounts she operates in this hospital can attract 200 patients to the hospital in one month, and the revenue generating effect of the operation is still very good. In addition, many medical self media accounts have opened showcase sales functions, with video content focusing on health education. The products they bring range from health products to daily necessities, kitchenware, and more, with a dazzling array. The storefront homepage of a doctor account operated by Jiang Yu shows 2653 items for sale with 2388 followers. After examining the content of several doctor accounts operated by MCN institutions, it was found that these institutions are adept at embedding implicit commercial advertisements. For example, doctors in videos only recommend certain ingredients or formulas without mentioning specific products. In the comment section, there are often some fans who, based on their trust in doctors, ask which brand they recommend, and these doctors will provide "guidance" in the top comment replies. It is necessary to comprehensively manage medical self media with a focus on professionalism and compliance. In recent years, major short video platforms have strictly controlled the professional identity authentication of doctors and the threshold for publishing medical and health science popularization. But the reporter's investigation found that there are still some unverified accounts that are not doctors, but use the banner of doctors to conduct "pseudo science popularization". Jiang Yu stated that due to platform policy adjustments, it is becoming increasingly difficult to create medical self media accounts. But for certain requirements, there can be policies at the top and countermeasures at the bottom. According to regulations, personal accounts need to have the qualification of "attending physician or above in a public tertiary hospital". Regarding this, Jiang Yu said that platform certification can be achieved by allowing doctors to practice in multiple locations (the behavior of qualified practicing doctors being employed to practice in two or more medical institutions - journalist's note). The account she operates is a certified private hospital doctor account obtained through "affiliation" with a hospital in Shandong, and is still in operation. (New Society)

Edit：Lubaikang Responsible editor：Chenze

Source：zqb.cyol.com

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