What if the most important thing you do as a physician happens outside the exam room?
Free N. Hess, D.O., a board-certified pediatrician and pediatric emergency physician, reached this epiphany early in her career when she realized that many of the children she was treating didn’t need to be there at all.
“Moving from an inner-city hospital to a rural area opened my eyes to how many injuries and illnesses could be prevented by more community resources and better education,” Hess said.
That insight didn’t just change how she practiced. It changed her sense of responsibility.
“I wanted to do more than educate one-on-one in the emergency room. I wanted a larger platform.”
Hess took action, starting the website
From treating injury to preventing it
In the pediatric ER, patterns emerge quickly. The same injuries. The same scenarios. The same outcomes. Severe head trauma from ATVs. Infants lost to unsafe sleep. Teens traumatized by online predators. These are not unpredictable events. They are preventable ones.
Yet medicine is structured to respond after the fact — to treat, stabilize, document, and discharge. Hess chose a different path: to step outside the system and try to stop the injuries before they happen through education. She does this through engaging audiences with relatable storytelling.
“I try to put a real story to the situation so that others can understand it, just like I educate my own child,” said Hess.
She recalled an anecdote from her daughter’s toddler years. “We went to a park, and there was somebody on the monkey bars. She said, and I’m not exaggerating, ‘Uh-oh, he’s gonna break his radius.'” Hess laughed. “I might have pushed a little too far occasionally.”
A new front line: Where patients actually get information
The reality is undeniable, said Hess: patients are getting much of their health information from resources other than physicians, often on social media. This shift has created a gap — one that is increasingly filled by influencers, misinformation, and voices without clinical expertise.
Hess said she recognized that if physicians are not present in that space, they are not part of the conversation. She determined to show up and encourages other doctors to join in the effort.
“If you have a whole host of pediatricians on social media and they’re all saying the same thing, that helps to drown out the misinformation,” she said. “It makes parents realize, ‘Okay, maybe my pediatrician was right, and all these influencers out there that are saying something different are not right.'”
The key, according to Hess, is to simply get started. “Don’t wait until you have everything perfect,” she said. In fact, she notes that less scripted performances are more effective because they are more relatable to patients.
“I’ll come home and just tell a story, like, ‘My daughter and I were at the store today and this is what happened. I thought it would be a good thing to talk to you about.’ Just start doing it and you get more and more comfortable, and it often becomes fun.”
For those who can’t imagine making videos, Hess recommends posting pictures or text, or simply sharing and amplifying the voices of other physicians. “Everyone has to work together because there is too much to do out there; there’s too much misinformation and too many questions that people have.”
One simple way to start, says Hess, is to create a professional social media page just to share validated medical information.
Saying what needs to be said — even when it’s unpopular
Some of the most important child safety messages are also the most controversial. Hess notes that while vaccines are the most emotionally charged topic, unsafe sleep is a close second. Despite clear evidence, Hess says that many parents remain unconvinced of the dangers of bed sharing, often due to cultural norms and personal experience.
Hess is unequivocal in her messaging, because she has seen the consequences firsthand. “I cannot even explain to you how many infants I have had to code from a very obvious unsafe sleep situation, and it just didn’t have to happen.”
Hess says it’s important for physicians and patients to understand proper terminology, especially if they are sharing information on social media. For example, “co-sleeping” isn’t a preferred term anymore, because it can be confusing. “The correct terminology is bed sharing and room sharing,” said Hess. “Room sharing with an infant in their own safe sleep space is recommended. Bed sharing, on the other hand, we do not recommend in any way. There is no safe way to bed share.”
To help spread the message of safe sleep, Hess collaborates with parents and patient advocates. “One of the moderators of my safety group lost her daughter to unsafe sleep in an in-home daycare, and another advocate lost her fifth child due to bedsharing.”
Hess says that testimony from those individuals is powerful. “People tend to listen and give them less hate and attacks than I get as a physician.”
Sharing education online has also allowed Hess to amplify her message through speaking engagements, participating in documentaries, and helping manufacturing companies create safer products. While Hess faces criticism, pushback, and sometimes outright hostility online, particularly when addressing emotionally loaded topics like sleep practices or vaccines, she says that the alternative — staying silent — is not acceptable, because it costs lives.
Childhood abuse and predatory online behavior
Hess says that one in four girls and one in six boys will be sexually abused in their lifetime. “Over 90% know their abuser, and a third of those are family members,” she said.
While childhood abuse is not a new phenomenon, awareness is rising due to social media and advocacy efforts.
Hess says that social media has expanded the ability of predators to seek targets, and technology has made it even easier. A particular concern is the rise of “sextortion,” where predators coerce children into sending them explicit photographs or create fake images and then threaten to expose them to friends and family. “This is severely traumatic, and has led to cases of suicide,” said Hess.
The key to preventing harm from sextortion or other predatory online behavior is education and open and honest dialogue. “There is a very large generational gap in understanding social media between parents and children. We do not know nearly as much as our children do, and it’s hard to play catch-up, but you have to, because you can’t talk to your kids about something that you don’t even know exists,” said Hess.
Education and conversations about social media risks can save lives. In one case, a parent saw a single video that Hess made about sextortion, which led to one conversation with her son. Months later, that teenager reported an active attempt at exploitation — ultimately helping authorities identify and arrest perpetrators.
One video. One conversation. A completely different outcome. That is the power of physician advocacy.
The risks are real — and so is the impact
Engaging publicly is not easy. Physicians who speak out face criticism, harassment, and reputational risk. Posts can go viral — for better or worse. Controversial topics can trigger waves of backlash. Hess has experienced all of it. And still, she continues. Because the upside is not theoretical — it’s measurable.
Hess says that traditionally, physicians define their impact by what happens in clinical settings — diagnoses made, treatments delivered, outcomes improved. But prevention operates differently. The success is invisible. It’s the child who never suffers a traumatic injury. The infant who sleeps safely. The teenager who avoids exploitation. These outcomes don’t generate billing codes or clinical notes. But they represent the highest-value care medicine can provide.
To remind herself of her “why,” Hess saves messages that she has received over the years from parents, telling her that her work has made a difference. This keeps her going even when times get tough.
For those who are nervous about stepping into advocacy, Hess suggests reaching out to others who are already working in the education space. “There are so many of us and knowing you have back-up makes such a difference,” she said. “Just getting that little pep talk from somebody who has also had a pep talk from somebody else can be very, very helpful. I hope that knowing that you can and should do that will help more people take the plunge onto social media.”
Taking medicine back — one voice at a time
While not every physician will create content or build a platform, everyone can share and amplify the work of others. Regardless of how you choose to engage, your voice matters — and its absence has consequences.
Hess’s work is not just about child safety. It’s about redefining what it means to practice medicine in a modern information landscape. It is a reminder that:
- Medical expertise carries responsibility beyond the clinic
- Advocacy is not optional when preventable harm is involved
- And one physician’s voice — used consistently and courageously — can change the world
Not because it’s easy. But because it’s necessary, and because physician voices can truly make a difference.
Music Credits
Medical Education by Art Media –
Editor’s note: Episode timestamps and transcript produced using AI tools.
0:17 — Dr. Free Hess introduces herself and her background in pediatric emergency medicine
1:18 — From the Bronx to rural Florida: How the move changed her perspective on preventable injuries
4:33 — Frustration with one-on-one education in the ER and the decision to build a larger platform
4:49 — Launching Pedi-Mom, the podcast, and expanding to social media including TikTok
6:09 — Safe sleep: Explaining the difference between bed sharing and room sharing, and why “co-sleeping” is a problematic term
8:18 — Why safe sleep generates so much backlash, and working with parent advocates who have lost children
11:15 — Expanding into speaking, documentaries, and consulting on child safety and online predators
12:03 — Why physicians need to be on social media and how to get started
13:25 — Practical advice for overcoming the fear of criticism and imperfection online
16:16 — Discussion of a viral post on teenage pregnancy and the broader threat of child sexual exploitation
20:11 — How advocacy opens doors: BBC’s “Childhood 2.0” documentary and collaborating with outside influencers
21:22 — The scope of child sexual abuse and how social media and AI have expanded predators’ reach
23:15 — Explaining sextortion: How it works, why teen boys are the primary target, and the link to suicide
25:01 — Advice for parents and physicians on protecting kids online
25:44 — The sextortion story that changed everything: A mother’s message and a Department of Homeland Security arrest
28:18 — Saving parent thank-you messages as motivation, and the impact of getting just one physician online
30:19 — Advice for physicians on reaching out to peers when things go wrong on social media
33:22 — Closing thoughts on why the benefits outweigh the risks of speaking out