North Memorial third-year resident Rose Marie Leslie, MD, has captured the attention of hundreds of thousands of young people on social media for her down-to-earth posts dealing with COVID-19 and other health concerns. After many months of garnering local and national media attention for her popular social media content and immense following, Dr. Leslie was named the number one most impactful content creator on the short video-sharing platform TikTok in December 2020.

The recipe to her success? "TikTok Doc" Dr. Leslie strives to share facts and fight misinformation in a way that is easily understandable and even humorous.

"It's giving people information in a space where they spend a lot of their time," she told WCCO recently. "I film all over the place: at home, in an office... whenever I have a moment."

Screenshots from Dr. Leslie's TikTok

Finding a moment isn't easy while working up to 80 hours a week fighting the pandemic alongside her healthcare colleagues. Still, Dr. Leslie finds the time, and her efforts continue to make a difference.

"I've had somebody reach out and say, 'I make sure to wear a mask because I learned about it on your videos.' Hearing people say those things gives me inspiration to keep making the content that I do and keep working as hard as we all do at the hospital."

Dr. Leslie has more than 850,000 followers on TikTok, a number that continues to grow every day as more people become introduced to her "daily doctor facts" and other fun and informative social posts.

After residency, she plans to join Allina Health Faribault Clinic.

 


Watch the WCCO video story