Emmie Dickerson, FNP, wasn't trying to go viral.

She posted a video on a whim, no makeup, still in pajamas, while she was out of town caring for her mother. The result? 22 new members enrolled in her practice.

She's not alone. Across the Hint community, a growing number of DPC providers are finding that TikTok, a platform most of them never expected to use for marketing, has become an effective way to reach new patients.

Emmie Dickerson, FNP: The Video She Almost Didn't Post

Emmie Dickerson wasn't building a TikTok content calendar. She was in Jacksonville with her mother, who'd just had hip replacement surgery, when she decided to post a video.

She'd picked up a tip from another creator: type your city into the video as on-screen text, then slide it up out of the visible frame, so the algorithm reads it but viewers never notice. She also mentioned her location in the video and used location hashtags in the caption.

She didn't expect much. But then the video pulled in about 13,000 local views, and within a week, Key 2 Wellness Direct Primary Care, her practice in Panama City, Florida, had enrolled 22 new members, a pace of growth she described as thrilling and, honestly, a little overwhelming.

Her advice has less to do with the algorithm trick than with what fills the video once someone stops scrolling: make the content useful, educational, and actually informative about Direct Primary Care, not just a pitch.

Dr. Kristy Mount: Posting From Day One, and Building a System Around It

Construction on Dr. Kristy Mount's clinic had barely wrapped, and patients were already booked to start within days, when she found herself buried in unpacked boxes and half-assembled furniture.

In the middle of it, she picked up her phone and filmed a short welcome video, just enough to build some buzz before Deserving of Joy: Direct Primary Care opened its doors in Indianapolis, Indiana.

She's kept up the habit ever since and today it's paying off in a way that surprised even her.

"Honestly, that's where most of my new patients come from at this point," she says. She had an early rush of patients follow her, then referrals from those patients, and now most new people find her through social media first, already knowing her voice and her philosophy before they ever book a meet and greet.

That first stranger from the internet was nerve-wracking. "The first time it happened was terrifying," Kristy admits. There's a real instinct not to talk to strangers from the internet, and she made sure her husband was working at reception that day. But it didn't take long for her to trust the channel completely. "My TikTok patients are the best people," she says. "It's a very nice community. I like it."

What makes Kristy's approach useful for a clinician who's intimidated by the idea of being on camera constantly is her actual workflow.

Her advice for clinicians: don't script it, don't try to make yourself look perfect, just get on there and talk. She keeps a running list of video ideas on her phone, then records five or six videos in one sitting on days she's already seen a full slate of patients, when she's warmed up, talkative, and used to explaining things out loud.

Then she batches the posting: everything goes out to Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok at once, scheduled two weeks in advance. That's what let her take a vacation recently without worrying about making anything new.

For Dr. Mount, TikTok is not a daily task competing with patient care. It's planned, batched work with a system behind it.

Dr. Leila Javidi: Turning Burnout into a Following

Before opening her practice, Dr. Leila Javidi started a TikTok account called “DoctorLeilaIsSad,” where she shared her experience with burnout in corporate medicine in real time.

"I have burnout videos where I cried and cried and cried," she says, describing it as a very public meltdown about the plight of the primary care physician.

Since then, her audience has grown to more than 40,000 followers, and her content has evolved alongside her. Many of her videos now begin with a question or comment from a follower, which she responds to on camera. Her talking-head videos cover everything from "7 Phases of Provider Burnout" to "Pain Management for Patients."

Her TikTok content creates community for other burned-out clinicians, while also introducing local patients to Rebel + Thrive Direct Primary Care, her local practice in Columbus, Ohio. Both audiences are frustrated by what she calls "sick care," the reactive, insurance-driven system her practice was created to move beyond.

Leila’s advice for clinicians weighing TikTok as a marketing channel: provide value, teach something, lead with authenticity. Acknowledge the problem your patients are facing, explain it, and only every so often make it about you.

Three different paths, one common thread: TikTok isn't a gimmick or a young doctor's game. It's a real marketing channel that can move the needle for a DPC practice. What’s more, none of them borrowed a script from an influencer playbook to make it work. They showed up as themselves and started posting.

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