VCOM 2021 Annual Report

ALUMNI

ALUMNI VIEWS

Twin Doctors Promoting Positivity

Jeremy Hogstrom, DO and Jermaine Hogstrom, DO VCOM-Auburn, Class of 2019 Internal Medicine, Wayne County Health Authority Graduate Medical Education, Detroit, MI Q: How did you get started with making Tik Toks? How are you able to incorporate it into your work? Jermaine: We started in late spring of 2020 because we were searching for a way to promote positivity and encourage people, especially young African American men, interested in medicine. I feel as if there is an unspoken discouragement for young African American men. We want to show that they can pursue medicine if they want. So part of our goal was to be positive role models.

you; nothing changes because we’re doctors. We want to make content that can make people laugh during these times, have a positive energy that they can look forward to, and educate people, especially about COVID and vaccines. Q: Any stories of people reaching out to you through the platform? Jeremy: People will stitch duet our videos on TikTok, and sometimes we will do a live Q&A, and we get interesting questions. We’ve had a lot of VCOM students reach out to us via TikTok. We’ve had people message and tell us they’ve decided to get the vaccine because of the knowledge we shared. I always tell them my job is to give them all the knowledge

possible and for them to make that decision. Even when we’re in the clinic, I don’t pressure people to get the vaccine because it is a touchy subject. I found a better response, and people are more accepting of the vaccine with that approach. I would say that is part of the humanism VCOM has taught me. Jermaine: You have to be very responsible with

Jeremy: We feel that having that visual presence to start with will motivate other young African American men to consider medicine. For us, growing up, we didn’t know any African American physicians until we were volunteering in college. It wasn’t until we got to VCOM and met Dr. Gary Hill and Dr. David Stephen that we knew

what you put out there. We give out updates on our platform on COVID and the vaccine. It has worked well. We have had many people reach out to us and thank us for taking the time to educate them about COVID. Some people who were not planning on getting the vaccine decided to get it because of how we shared the facts and dispelled the myths about the vaccine. We try to help with general medical education with simple things. ■

male African American physicians personally. So although we’ve always had that goal of pursuing medicine, it’s different when you haven’t seen somebody that looks like you in your shoes. Jeremy: The other part of why we started this, especially in the middle of the pandemic, was to have an outlet because we were unable to go anywhere and everything was closed. Since everyone was at home, we figured we would give them something to watch. We began all this to show that as physicians, we’re just like

Find the Hogstrom twins on TikTok @twin.doctors.j

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