From Clinics to Clicks: Why India’s Doctors Are Becoming Influencers

Some words are still dangerous in India. Sex. Desire. Contraception.

When Dr Neha Mehta says them out loud on Instagram, she knows exactly what follows: Unease, outrage, whispers and even backlash. She crosses the line anyway. Why? Because silence, she believes, does more damage than noise.

From Hisar, Haryana, the psychologist and marriage-and-sex therapist has built a following of 1.1 million by dragging taboo into daylight. These are conversations pushed out of drawing rooms, dodged in classrooms, and often rushed through even inside clinics. She slows them down. Names them. Refuses to look away.

“There are so many myths that need to be broken,” Dr Mehta says. “People are shocked to realise they’re not alone. When no one talks about these problems, they assume something is wrong with them.”

Instagram became her battleground and her amplifier. What a small-town practice never could, social media did: it carried her voice into millions of phones, especially those of millennials and Gen Z. It didn’t just change who she reached. It changed the rules of who gets to speak and be heard.

Why doctors are going digital?

Dr Mehta once ran five clinics in Hisar. Today, she has slowed physical expansion and shifted her focus online.

The reason is simple economics.

“In a city like Hisar, people hesitate to pay ₹500 or ₹1,000 for sexual health consultations,” she explains. “But NRIs or people in metro cities easily spend up to ₹10,000 online.”

She is far from alone.

Across India, thousands of doctors—from dermatologists and paediatricians to nutritionists and endocrinologists—are building digital followings on Instagram and YouTube, tapping audiences where healthcare is expensive, appointments are scarce, and misinformation spreads freely.

Trust is the real currency

Unlike lifestyle influencers, doctors bring something rare to social media: credibility.

“In the real world, people pay thousands just to consult a doctor for a few minutes,” says Aditya Gurwara, Co-Founder of influencer marketing firm Qoruz. “When doctors explain skin care, gut health or nutrition online in simple language, it feels like a free consultation. That builds instant trust and followers.”

That trust is precisely why brands are lining up to work with medical creators. Skincare, baby care, wellness and pharma companies see doctors as far more persuasive than celebrities.

Visibility, though, comes with risks.

Doctors are not allowed to advertise directly, and missteps online can be costly. “If you’re visible and saying the right things, patients will come,” says Dr Ambrish Mithal, an endocrinologist based in Delhi. “But social media is also dangerous. You can be trolled, or disgruntled patients can damage your reputation.”

Post-Covid, the stakes are even higher.

“There is so much misinformation circulating,” reckons Dr Mithal. Anybody can make a video and forward it on WhatsApp. “Busting myths has now become part of our job,” he adds.

To prevent misuse, the National Medical Commission has issued strict guidelines: doctors must share only verified information, cannot prescribe treatments online, and are barred from buying followers or gaming algorithms. Ironically, these are the rules that don’t apply to most other creators.

Is this now mainstream?

The numbers suggest it is.

According to Qoruz data, between January and December 2025, around 12,400 medical professionals were actively creating content. They produced 47,900 posts, generating over 206 million engagements. Skincare, dermal care, parenting, baby care, pharma and wellness brands are the most active collaborators, with companies like Cetaphil, Sun Pharma, Bioderma, Himalaya Babycare and FirstCry leading partnerships.

But money isn’t without trade-offs.

One of the biggest is credibility trap. “Excessive brand collaborations can erode trust,” warns Dr Mithal.

According to Gurwara, macro doctor-creators (500K followers) earn ₹2–3 lakh per collaboration, while those with over a million followers can command ₹5–7 lakh, sometimes more. Yet the doctors who last, he says, are those who exercise restraint.

“The creators who survive long-term are the ones who prioritise education and choose partnerships carefully,” Gurwara says. “Trust is slow to build and very easy to lose.”

What’s unfolding isn’t just a creator trend. It’s a restructuring of healthcare communication. Doctors are stepping into the vacuum left by silence, stigma and misinformation, turning smartphones into consultation rooms and credibility into capital.

But unlike influencers chasing virality, medical creators walk a tighter line, where every post must balance reach with responsibility.

And that, perhaps, is why audiences keep listening.