2026 Urogynecology for the Advanced Practice Provider-Keynote: From Reels to Reality and TikTok to the Exam Room: Managing Patient Expectations in the Age of Social Media

Keynote: From Reels to Reality and TikTok to the Exam Room: Managing Patient Expectations in the Age of Social Media

Video Transcription

Video Summary

The speaker thanked advanced practice providers for their teaching and mentorship throughout medical school, residency, and fellowship, and especially appreciated a nurse practitioner in her own practice. She then presented on social media’s role in health care, focusing on how it shapes patient expectations and spreads both useful information and misinformation.<br /><br />She described how social media use is widespread, especially among younger people, and how platforms like TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook influence health decisions. While social media can offer validation, community, empowerment, and advocacy, it also amplifies anecdotal content, anxiety, and misleading or promotional material. The speaker reviewed studies showing that urogynecology and contraception-related content online is often low quality, frequently posted by non-clinicians, and more likely to gain engagement when it contains misinformation.<br /><br />To help clinicians respond, she emphasized relationship-centered care and the “three C’s” model: compassionate understanding, connection, and collaboration. She encouraged providers to ask open-ended questions, validate concerns, offer evidence gently, and work with patients to identify shared goals. She gave examples involving mesh fears and vaginal estrogen hesitancy, then ended by encouraging clinicians to use their voices online to counter misinformation with accurate, patient-centered education.

Asset Subtitle

Learning Objectives:

Describe the current state of social media use in the US and discuss current trends of social media use in healthcare.
Explain the types and variety of Urogynecology-specific information on social media.
Identify frameworks to strengthen the provider-patient relationship and combat healthcare misinformation.

Speaker: Ian Fields, MD, MCR

Keywords

social media

health care

patient expectations

misinformation

relationship-centered care

health education

urogynecology

clinician communication