What can we learn from #DoctorsAreDickheads?
A study of the 2018 viral hashtag concludes that although clinicians may feel resistant to patient concerns expressed through social media, they shouldn't ignore them
The hashtag #DoctorsAreDickheads trended on Twitter for weeks, unearthing cathartic views on the medical profession in some 40,000 tweets.
It started in late 2018, after US woman Stevie Boebi posted a YouTube video talking about the length of time it took to diagnose her medical condition, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.
She ended the 11-minute video with the words “doctors are dickheads” and the Twitter floodgates opened, with posts from all over the globe.
Users told stories of the times they’d been dismissed, disbelieved, misdiagnosed and treated poorly by doctors.
