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Doctors on Air
Podcast Report 2026
Why Healthcare Professionals and
Medical Physicians Should Speak on Podcasts
The health information war is being lost - and physicians are not in it.
Social Media
Patients are increasingly turning to social media for medical advice - before, during and after their clinical relationships.
Misinformation
83% of that advice is wrong. Yet 38% of patients trust social media over their doctor - and that figure is rising year on year.
How to Compete?
How do physicians compete for trust in a media environment built for speed, noise and misinformation?
Go Longform
The answer is not to out-shout social media — it's to out-trust it. Podcast guesting is the highest-trust, lowest-effort channel available to a physician today.
Patients today are getting medical advice from TikTok
(Source: Plushcare study, American Psychiatric Association's journal Focus 2025)
83% of that medical advice is wrong
Rising to 94.1% for Bipolar mental health advice. (Source: Plushcare study, American Psychiatric Association's journal Focus 2025)
Only 9% of TikTok health content creators have relevant medical qualifications
(*Source: Plushcare study, American Psychiatric Association's journal Focus 2025)
Here's what you can do about it…
1. Don't Burn Trust to Gain Attention
The media landscape is already very noisy and highly competitive
#1 The Attention Economy: 144 daily phone content checks
#2 The Content Firehose: 2 billion pieces of content published every 24 hours
#3 The Decline in Trust: 17-point collapse in trust in 5 years
With Podcasts you don't have to play their game…
Podcasts play to your professional strengths
Longform Conversation not 6 Seconds Clips
Space to allow in depth discussion and nuance without pandering to the algorithm
Authentic and Human
Bandwidth to show emotion, empathy and the human backstory behind the guest
The Format Rewards Experience
Listeners want to learn from people with expertise and experience, not those who learned to game the attention of others
Discoverable Long Term
Podcasts become discoverable on Apple, Spotify and, importantly, Youtube, giving you an online evergreen base of assets
2. Podcasts Help You Connect with Patients on Your Terms
When It Matters Most: Long-Form, Authentic Conversations
Yes, tik tok and social media flood the zone of attention. But when it comes to high stakes decisions, people increasingly rely on authentic, human and long form conversations
Podcasts are the Trusted Voice
Higher-attention environments produce stronger memory traces than interrupted mobile-feed environments. Podcasts are consistently rated among the most trusted media formats.
86%
Podcast Recall
Podcast advertising achieves 86% ad recall among active listeners — far above typical digital benchmarks
84%
Trust hosts and guests
(Source: Loopex Digital / Podcast Statistics 2026)
23x
More Trusted
Podcasts are cited as 23× more trustworthy as social media
U.S. adults spend an average of 103 minutes per day with podcasts
outpacing TikTok (77 mins), Facebook (69 mins), and Instagram (65 mins).
(Source: Edison Research, Share of Ear, Q4 2025)
59% of female podcast listeners tune in to health & fitness content specifically
(Source: Nielsen via DesignRush, 2026)
3. Podcasts Help You Take Control of the Public Discourse
The Misinformation Challenge
64%
64% of Physicians said misinformation on social media was the most challenging part of practising medicine today
(Source: The Doctors Company, June 2025)
"The most powerful current threat to public health is not an infectious disease or climate change - it is the rampant spread of health-related misinformation and disinformation."
(Source: Annals of Internal Medicine / American College of Physicians, Dec 2025)
"Podcasts are identified as the most promising counter to health misinformation at scale."
(Source: JMIR Pediatrics & Parenting, PMC)
4. Podcasts Create Trust at Scale: Take your Voice Where Your Patients Are
"the fight for trust can no longer be confined to exam rooms; it has to happen where patients already are"
(Source: KFF Health Information & Trust Tracking Poll 2025 / Medscape, Feb 2026)
Where are Healthcare Choices Made?
73%
Consider online in choices
73% of patients consider online content and reviews a critical factor when selecting a healthcare provider. Source: SPRY / RepuGen 2025
50%
Are Influenced by Word of Mouth
Word of mouth drives 20-50% of all healthcare purchasing decisions. Source: McKinsey & Co / Cue Healthcare Podcasting Report, 2025
45%
Turn to friends & family
45% of young adults 18-34 favour medical advice from friends and family over their doctor. ​Source: Edelman Trust Barometer - Health Report, 2025
"For a decade, the patient journey began with a Google search. Today it begins earlier - with video and audio content that builds authority long before the first phone call."
(Source: Pixel Studios Healthcare Marketing, 2025)
5. Podcasts Can Demonstrate Your Deep Understanding of the Problem
What do Patients Value in Medical Communication?
96%
Clarity & Attentive Listening
patients said clear communication and attentive listening are pivotal to a positive experience. Source: AAPA-Harris Poll 2025
2/3
Valued human connection
Human connection and track record of advice seen as equally valid credentials. Source: Edelman Trust Barometer - Special Report: Health, 2025
Podcasts & Depth of Engagement
The most valuable unit isn't "impressions" - it's attention. Podcasts routinely win on minutes-per-consumer compared to all feed content formats.
Completion Rates Tell the Real Story
A 45–60 minute episode carries nuance, context, and credibility signals that short clips simply cannot deliver.
Podcasts consistently outperform typical online video benchmarks on attention and retention, reinforcing that long-form holds attention
On Podcasts: Empathy > Expertise
Podcast listeners found they were "more engaged when listening to somebody tell their story"
A qualitative study of health podcast listeners. Listeners rated podcasts as more representative and multi-dimensional than written health information. (Shaw et al., Patient Education & Counseling, 2022 - cited within Robins et al.)
"Effective communication is where influence is won and lost - and it goes beyond medical expertise."
(Source: Edelman Trust Barometer - Special Report: Health, 2025)
6. Podcast Take Your Voice to Your Peers
Podcasts gave a "broad exposure to core content and personalised learning… and… connection to local and national professional communities."
(Source: Wolters Kluwer / Journal of General Internal Medicine, Academic Medicine)
Podcasts are a Ready Built Community of Physicians
Physicians spend up to four hours per week engaged with podcast educational material, with a majority endorsing podcasts as more beneficial to their learning than textbooks or journal articles. (Source: TopDoctor Magazine / Academic Medicine research, 2026)
89%
EM Residents
89% of Emergency medicine residents. 59% of Internal medicine residents…listen to podcasts. Surgical and acute-care physicians are even higher than the average. (PubMed)
81%
Healthcare Professionals
81% of Healthcare professionals are regular podcast listeners. Significantly higher than the general population rate of 55%. (Source: PubMed via JMIR Pediatrics & Parenting, peer-reviewed study)
38%
Practitioners
Medical podcast subscribers: 38% internists, specialists, faculty, or post-training physicians. practitioners. A further 23% are residents or fellows, and 20% are advanced (Source: TopDoctor Magazine / peer-reviewed subscriber analysis, 2026)
75% of healthcare professionals use their smartphones to listen to podcasts - the same device they use throughout their clinical day
(Source: Kantar Media Digital Insights Survey, via Wolters Kluwer)
25,000 Social Posts a Month from HCPs
In 2016, 12,000 healthcare professionals mentioned podcasts on social media each month. By 2022 that number had grown to 25,000 posts per month - a 108% increase in professional engagement with the medium. (Source: HRS Communications via DocWire News)
So how do you get started?
The good news is… you don't need to start your own podcast
Let hosts do the heavy lifting for you
There are 820,000 estimated health podcasts out there already
(Source: Priori Data via DesignRush, 2026)
…and you don't need to become a social media guru
One Conversation = Multiple Content Derivatives
You're busy with clients. You don't have time to become a social media editing guru. The good news is podcasts (and their hosts) do the heavy lifting for you.
Podcasts & The Power of YouTube
YouTube is the single largest discovery layer for podcast audiences.
#1 Platform for Weekly Listeners
Edison Research reports YouTube is the most-used service by weekly podcast listeners in the U.S. at 31% — ahead of Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
700 Million Hours/Month in 2025
700 million hrs of podcasts watched per month on living-room devices
Dual-Format Consumption Is Now the Norm
57% of audience have both listened to and watched (Infinite Dial)
Your Voice is Your Most Valuable Credential
Buyers, patients, clients - anyone who places a premium on trust when they decide who to work with - will actively seek out and research you. They want to know what you say, how you solve problems and your way of thinking.
Example: Podcast Guesting (Physician)
Example: Podcast Guesting (Physician)
by Graham Brown, Podcast Guesting Pro
Thanks for reading my presentation. I've been podcasting since 2018, first as a host, then as a production manager and now helping coaches, consultants and licensed professionals find their voice by get booked on high quality podcasts.

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