Finding your voice — and what to do with it.

I started thinking seriously about physician social media in 2011 — as a medical student, before most of the infrastructure that now exists had been built. I watched the early Twitter years unfold in real time: the emergence of surgical communities, the first hashtags that moved from niche to mainstream, the discovery that a platform designed for brief public exchange could somehow build belonging across continents. I was not watching from the outside. I was in it — building platforms from zero, founding movements, publishing research on how physician social media actually functions, and quietly coaching other physicians through the early work of figuring out their voice.

I've been away during residency — seven years in which the landscape shifted more than once. I'm re-entering now, actively re-learning the current terrain, and finding that the platforms have changed but the questions haven't. What do you actually want to say? Who are you saying it to? What kind of presence can you sustain alongside everything else medicine asks of you? And what does it cost when you get those questions wrong?

The goal isn't a following. It's a voice that is recognizably yours, in service of something that actually matters to you.

What I offer

I work with a small number of physicians one-on-one — intentionally small. This is not a coaching practice I'm trying to scale. It is something I find genuinely engaging: sitting with someone who has something to say and helping them figure out how to say it in a way that is theirs, sustainable, and connected to what they actually care about.

People come to this from very different places — in career stage, in experience with social media, and in what they're trying to build. That range is not a problem. It's actually the point.

A medical student who has grown up on social media may be fluent in the platforms but have no framework yet for professional presence, networking, or what it means to have a public voice in medicine — and what it might cost if that's not thought through. A seasoned attending may have built an extraordinary career but feel completely foreign to the idea of a digital presence, not knowing where to begin or whether it's even worth it. Both are legitimate starting points. Both are conversations I find worthwhile.

This tends to be a good fit for physicians who are:

• Starting from scratch — whether that means never having had a professional presence online, or having one you've never been intentional about.
• Fluent on social media personally but trying to figure out what professional presence actually means — and how to build it without losing yourself or your credibility.
• Already present but unclear — posting without a strong sense of direction, voice, or why it isn't gaining traction.
• Building toward something specific — a movement, a book, a speaking career, a community — and trying to use social media as deliberate infrastructure for that.
• Re-entering after time away — understanding what has changed, what still applies, and how to rebuild.
• Navigating the tension between professional identity and public voice — especially those in training, where the stakes of visibility feel high and the norms are rarely named.

How it works

Coaching is structured as a package of four sessions, used at whatever pace works for you. Some people want intensive momentum — four sessions close together to build a foundation quickly. Others prefer to spread them out — weekly, monthly, or whenever something comes up that they want to think through. There's no fixed schedule. You decide the rhythm.

Between sessions, I'm available by direct message for lighter-touch support — a quick reaction to a draft, a question about how to handle something, a gut check before you post. The idea is that you're not on your own between calls; you have someone to think with as things come up in real time.

What I bring

I am not a social media manager or a marketing strategist. I am a surgeon who has spent fifteen years thinking carefully about what it means for physicians to have a public voice — the opportunities, the professional implications, the risks, and the genuine rewards when it's done with clarity and intention.

I understand the current platforms, but I also understand surgical culture, the specific pressures of training, the complicated relationship between visibility and professional identity in medicine, and what it costs — professionally and personally — to get that relationship wrong. I've published peer-reviewed research on physician social media. I've spoken on the topic at the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, at Harvard's Professional Development Program, at surgical meetings across North America, Europe, and South America, and to medical student audiences from Sweden to Kuwait. I founded one of the most widely known movements in physician social media history, and I know exactly how it worked and why — and what it required of the person at the center of it.

I also know what I don't know. I've been away, and I'm re-learning alongside the people I work with. That's not a limitation — it's the honest version of what I bring.

A few things worth knowing

• I keep the roster small. This is by design, not by circumstance. I prefer depth. I want to be genuinely useful to the people I work with, which means I'm not trying to work with many people at once.
• I charge for my time. Good work requires real commitment on both sides, and paying for something changes how you engage with it. I charge accordingly for the depth of experience and attention I bring. A reduced rate is available for students and trainees — reach out and we can talk about what makes sense.
• I'm selective. Not because I'm trying to be exclusive, but because this kind of work requires genuine fit — the right questions, the right moment, the right match. If it doesn't seem right, I'll say so and try to point you somewhere useful.

If this sounds like what you're looking for, the best next step is a short conversation. Find a time on my calendar — no commitment, no pitch, just a chance to get a sense of where you are and whether this is the right fit.

Dr. Heather