I’M A DOCTOR and I’ll wear what I want
As a medical journal causes outrage by suggesting female surgeons who post bikini photos are ‘unprofessional,’ GP Doireann O’Leary says she’s not ashamed of her social media
‘ My patients don’t care about my online presence ' ‘ I actually thought I wanted to work in fashion'
WHAT do you think doctors should wear in their free time? You would think the answer is pretty obvious — whatever they want — but last week, a study published by the Journal of Vascular Surgery questioned this, causing outrage among medical professionals worldwide.
The study, titled ‘Prevalence of unprofessional social media content among young vascular surgeons’, analysed the social media accounts of 480 surgeons to identify ‘unprofessional’ content on their feeds. The researchers combed through the social media accounts of graduating vascular surgery trainees — about a third of which belonged to women — calling out posts that they deemed ‘potentially unprofessional’ such as those wearing bikinis, drinking alcohol, and wearing ‘provocative’ Halloween costumes.
The article, which has since been retracted, was a seemingly blatant attempt to discredit females working in a predominately male environment, triggering a global response among healthcare workers. The #medbikini trend on social media shows photos of female medics both on duty in scrubs and workwear, alongside those of them in swimwear, with comments slamming the sexist study.
Weighing in on the debate is 32-year-old Cork GP Dr Doireann O’Leary, who posted a pic off-duty, enjoying her holidays, in a bikini and sunhat, saying: ‘How this paper passed an ethics committee and made it through the peer review process is beyond me.
‘But what I do know is that patients don’t care what their doctors do in their personal life or share online. I’ve always shared my personal life quite openly. My patients don’t care about my online presence as long as I’m taking care of them professionally and competently — which I of course always do my utmost to achieve #medbikini’.’
Doireann, 32, who is married to a surgeon, Peter, is perfectly placed to make such comments. Since she opened her Instagram account in 2018, she has been a breath of fresh air by breaking down boundaries between patients and doctors with her openness and transparency. Her sharing of important medical advice in a relatable, engaging way plus insight into her personal life has won her a legion of followers – almost 160k to be exact.
Fast becoming a style icon, she is as a likely to share her #OOTD (outfit of the day) as she is to correct misinformation about Covid.
‘One of the reasons why I started the accounts was to dispel the idea that medical professionals were unapproachable,’ she says. ‘Another was that there were so many health claims and so much misinformation online. I decided instead of giving out about it, I would correct it myself.’
This personable approach actually makes her job easier, Doireann reveals – although, she admits, it’s not for everyone.
‘There are different types of GP style. The more traditional and older GPs do a great job with that too, I think there’s room for everyone.
‘I find that I don’t have to spend as much time building a rapport with patients when they come in,’ she says. ‘Sometimes it takes a long time to develop that space where people feel they really trust you as a doctor and know that you’re going to do the right thing, I feel like they know me and trust me already, as they know me from Instagram.’
Her patients are made up of mostly younger women and girls, she says, possibly attracted by her openness and empathy, not to mention her innate sense of style.
‘I’ve always been obsessed, with clothes, even as child,’ she reveals. ‘I would change my outfits three times a day,’ she admits. ‘I actually thought I wanted to work in fashion, and I did try working in a couple of boutiques but although I loved being around clothes, I knew it wasn’t going to be my career.’
Her decision to enter the very unglamourous world of medicine was clearly the correct path for her. In this world, her passion for style, not to mention her blond-haired, blue-eyed beauty, however, was something that she only really felt truly comfortable with as her confidence grew with time.
‘I struggled with that, the whole proving I could do this,’ she says. ‘I do remember as a younger doctor, a patient called me Blondie and even though that was pretty inoffensive I was like, I don’t want to be seen as that. I dyed my hair brown shortly afterwards,’ she laughs. ‘It really had a big effect on me. But I’ve developed confidence over the years to just be myself,’ she says. The sexism that prevails in medicine is something, as a GP in Ireland, is something she hasn’t personally experienced — although, as evidenced by the discredited article, it clearly does exist.
‘General practice in Ireland is a very welcoming space for women,’ Doireann says. ‘We are supported and treated equally, in my experiences. That paper was conducted by vascular surgeons in the US, which is a very male-dominated space. I think the motivation for it was trying to discredit females working in that sphere. It was really regressive but what it has done is start a conversation about what doctors do in their spare time and competency and how we shouldn’t be judged on that.’
When it comes to opening up important conversations, Doireann has proved to be fearless in sharing her personal traumas and encouraging her followers to seek medical advice. In a post referencing the iWeigh movement about inclusivity and values, she shared the devastating loss of ‘her sister and best friend’, Elaine, who died in 2011.
‘She passed away in a road traffic accident in Australia two weeks before I started my internship in 2011. I mentioned her when discussing grief and how you really
‘ I am thankful for the fact that I am alive and I’m ok
never move on or get “closure” when you lose a loved one. You just have to learn to live with it with the passage of time,’ she says.
And bravely, Doireann has also shared her own personal health battle. Following a routine smear, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2018. She made the decision to share her story with her followers some time after.
‘I was diagnosed in May and I didn’t have a huge following on social media at the time,’ she says. ‘I didn’t share it initially as I was so overwhelmed by it all,’ she explains. ‘And I was battling with the decision to share it, as it was so personal. But after I had the surgery and my treatment, I decided to post about my experience.
‘I could easily have carried on and no-one would have been the wiser.
But I realised that this is life, this is who I am, and it was kind of therapeutic to say it out loud, that this happened.’
Exposing her vulnerability also made Doireann question what others thought of her, in a professional capacity, she admits. ‘I convinced myself that patients would no longer come to me because I had been sick,’ she says. ‘I thought they would go: ’Oh look, she had cancer, she must have got it wrong,’ she recalls.
‘I remember texting my brother and saying “my career is over” because I got sick. I thought I wouldn’t be able to be a doctor and certainly wouldn’t be able to post health advice online any more,’ she recalls. ‘Obviously now I see how ridiculous that was, but it felt very real at the time.’
In fact, the knock-on effect was that of prompting women to go for their smear test and look after their health. ‘Obviously my patients know I’m going to be grilling them about their routine smears,’ Doireann says. ‘Making sure girls get the HPV vaccine, that kind of thing.
‘I think of my own situation today and I’m thankful for the fact that I’m alive and I’m ok. My priority is to protect my patients as best I can,’ says Doireann, who is well and remains in follow-up screening post treatment. She refers to her own GP as her ‘rock’ and says now, more than ever, it’s so important to have a good, honest relationship with your doctor.
‘I would be so lost without him,’ she says. ‘I’m one of the lucky ones who has that relationship.’
Covid has actually helped doctors become more engaging with patients in a way, she suggests, and the spike in her popularity on Instagram during lockdown is testament to this, as her videos explaining the truths of the virus saw her number of followers rocket.
‘I think this happened because I shared the information in a very accessible and understandable way,’ she says. ‘There was a lot of scaremongering and I wanted to help reinforce the facts — the public health messages and the truth about Covid and how we can protect ourselves.
‘The unique thing about Covid is that it’s global. Ireland was going into lockdown, New York was going into lockdown. The messages I was sharing resonated with people all over the world, not just here.’
Possibly now, more than ever, we need to see the human side of GPs as we can’t see them under PPE, adding to people’s fear.
‘But I think a lot more doctors are going online and sharing healthcare information because of Covid,’ Doireann says. ‘I love to see that — it’s a really good thing.
‘I feel awful about how the PPE looks to patients. I know it can seem off-putting and a little scary and it’s a struggle not to be able to chat to them normally.’
Doireann is quick to point out that given her huge platform, she can’t possibly be GP to hundreds of thousands of people so she doesn’t answer private messages or give personal medical advice online.
‘The main message is to contact your own GP if you have a health problem,’ she says. ‘These times have highlighted the importance of General Practice. There’s nothing too small, that’s what GPs are for. For a long time during lockdown, people weren’t even phoning us, and now we are dealing with the catch-up of that.’
Eagle-eyed followers of Doireann’s may be keen to where she shops, given her dazzling wardrobe and natural flair for style. She’s a fan of Farfetch, a discount designer platform that sells labels from Balmain to Valentino. And she loves snapping up some style from favourite high street store, Zara.
‘Sometimes I wonder how long that will last, people being interested in what I wear off-duty,’ she muses. ‘Will people think, am I here for fashion or am I here for medical advice?’ she says. ‘But I would hate nothing more than to have an account that is clinical and cold — that would bore me to tears,’ she says, adding that her style icon is ‘probably Olivia Palermo’.
‘She never seems to get it wrong.’
Suffice to say, neither does Dr Doireann.