Dr. Erin Nance on ‘Little Miss Diagnosed,’ Medical Bias, and Why Empathy Is Modern Medicine’s Missing Link
“FeelBetr is based on the belief that people are the best medicine. I believe that those with lived experience are the ones we should be building communities around — especially for people searching for a diagnosis or who are newly diagnosed… If we lead with kindness and form these communities, people truly are the best medicine.”
I had the pleasure of talking with Dr. Erin Nance. Dr. Nance, an orthopedic surgeon based in New York City, has emerged as an influential voice at the intersection of medicine, media, and digital advocacy. With the publication of her debut memoir “Little Miss Diagnosed” on June 3, 2025, she adds the role of author to a growing list of professional identities that includes clinician, entrepreneur, and co-host of the medical podcast, “The Medical Detectives.” Nance’s work draws heavily on her experience within the healthcare system, both as a doctor and as a patient, to examine systemic gaps, challenge diagnostic bias, and advocate for greater empathy in patient care.
Board-certified in orthopedic surgery, Nance founded FeelbBetr Health, a forthcoming digital platform intended to bridge the gap between medical professionals and patients through a social-media-based health community. Launching later this month, the platform reflects her ongoing efforts to shift the power dynamics of modern healthcare, particularly for women with chronic illnesses. Her popular TikTok channel, @LittleMissDiagnosed, has gained over 750,000 followers and serves as a space where personal stories of misdiagnosis and medical oversight are elevated and explored. Her social media work is distinguished by its blend of humor, clinical insight, and a focus on patient advocacy.
A native of Long Island, Nance is the eldest of four siblings and the only girl. Her interest in orthopedic surgery dates back to a childhood accident that left her with a broken arm and an early encounter with Dr. Michael Alexiades, then a family friend and orthopedic surgeon, who treated her at Lenox Hill Hospital. Years later, she would train under Alexiades at the same hospital, realizing a goal she had held since the age of seven.
Her career began during a tumultuous period. On the first day of her general surgery internship, which coincided with July 4th weekend, Nance learned that her younger brother had sustained a catastrophic spinal cord injury. A former Division I athlete and Olympic hopeful, he had become quadriplegic following a pool accident. The convergence of personal trauma and professional duty left an indelible mark on her approach to medicine, one she describes as rooted in both technical precision and emotional realism. That story, among others, became foundational material for her memoir and online storytelling.
“Little Miss Diagnosed: A Surgeon’s Guide to Breaking Bones and Bending Rules” is both a memoir and a commentary on the limitations of the American healthcare system. Structured around case studies and personal anecdotes, the book explores themes of diagnostic oversight, medical sexism, and ethical decision-making. Nance writes about helping a homeless woman receive life-saving surgery despite administrative resistance, and shares the story of diagnosing a rare glomus tumor through an online message exchange. In this case, her social media follower had endured chronic fingertip pain for years before Nance suggested the possibility of a tumor, a suspicion later confirmed by MRI.
Nance’s diagnostic acumen is shaped not only by her clinical training but also by her early academic research. She is recognized as a published expert on glomus tumors, a fact unknown to the patient who reached out to her online. That episode reinforced for Nance a recurring theme in her work: that listening carefully and taking patients seriously is often the most powerful form of treatment.
In addition to her medical practice, Nance co-hosts “The Medical Detectives” podcast with content creator Anna O’Brien. The weekly series features narratives from patients and clinicians alike, often focusing on mysterious or mismanaged diagnoses. Designed in part as a response to the impersonal nature of some clinical encounters, the podcast functions as a platform for advocacy and education.
FeelBetr Health, her latest venture, is described as a physician-run alternative to traditional medical forums and online health communities. It will center around patient experience, particularly for those navigating complex or chronic conditions. Nance’s philosophy undergirding the project is that health literacy and peer support are as crucial as pharmacological or surgical interventions.
While much of her public identity is digital, Nance continues to practice surgery and remains deeply engaged in the daily realities of clinical care. She is particularly outspoken about the biases she perceives in how medicine is taught and practiced. She points to the underrepresentation of women in clinical trials, the frequent mislabeling of physical symptoms as psychiatric in origin, and the structural inequities that hinder access to adequate diagnosis or treatment. These are recurring subjects in her online content, which regularly prompts tens of thousands of comments and viewer interactions.
Despite long hours and a demanding schedule, Nance says her version of self-care includes simple pleasures: Bravo TV, tabloid magazines, and pedicures. She often jokes about the contrast between the seriousness of her profession and the lightness of her off-hours routines, emphasizing the importance of emotional balance.
As she prepares to launch both a book and a startup within weeks of each other, Nance remains focused on a central message: that empathy, not detachment, should guide modern medicine. Whether offering brief advice to a TikTok user or treating complex fractures in the operating room, her goal is to ensure patients feel seen, believed, and understood.
Yitzi: Dr. Nance, it’s a delight and honor to meet you. Before we dive in deep, our readers would love to learn about your personal origin story. Can you share with us the story of your childhood and how you grew up?
Dr. Nance: Sure. I grew up on Long Island. I was the oldest of four kids and the only girl. I had three brothers. I was kind of, as I call it, Mom Part Two. People always ask me, when did you know you wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon? And I tell them, I’ve known since I was seven years old. Since I was seven, I wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon. That all stemmed from a fall I took down the stairs. I broke my arm and went to Lenox Hill Hospital. While I was there, a man in a tuxedo came in and put a cast on my arm. I was starstruck. I remember thinking, who is this man? He looked like James Bond.
What I didn’t know at the time was that my father, who was the lawyer for Lenox Hill Hospital, and that man was his friend, Dr. Michael Alexiades. He wasn’t on call that night — he was actually at the opera with his wife — and he left the opera to come take care of me and put the cast on. Later, I ended up doing my orthopedic surgery training at Lenox Hill Hospital under Dr. Alexiades.
Yitzi: Wow. Can you tell us about your training and the story of when you first became a surgeon?
Dr. Nance: That was really the start of both my training and how I got started on social media. During the pandemic, I was watching TikTok and found myself really drawn to storytelling posts. I believe everyone has one Netflix-worthy story about their life, and for me, that story was my first day of work.
I was a general surgery intern. It was July 4th weekend, when all the new interns start in the hospital. I was starting on the night shift, and I was excited but nervous. I had just begun seeing patients when I got an emergency call from my mom. I remember thinking, “Mom, please don’t bother me at work”. But she kept calling, so I finally picked up. She told me that one of my brothers had been in an accident — a pool accident. We didn’t know much, but I told her, make sure an attending radiologist reads the films so nothing gets missed.
I went back to work, but within a few minutes, I got another call from my youngest brother. I said, “I know about Kevin.” Then he said, “No, I don’t think you understand. He can’t move. He’s in a helicopter on the way to Stony Brook Hospital.”
That’s when I realized he was paralyzed. He had broken his neck and became a quadriplegic. That was my first day of work — finding out that my own family member had an orthopedic surgery emergency. That moment really became the foundation for both my book and my presence on social media.
Yitzi: Wow. You probably have some amazing stories from all the different parts of your career — your practice, your advocacy, and your social media videos. Can you share with our readers one or two stories that really stand out in your mind from your career?
Dr. Nance: Yeah. I’ll give you one that’s in the book and one that isn’t.
The one that’s not in the book happened during my trauma training. In New York City, people may not realize this, but there actually isn’t a ton of orthopedic trauma. The cars don’t go that fast, so we do our trauma training at Baltimore Shock Trauma. The military sends all their future doctors there because it’s the busiest level one trauma center in the country.
One night, I was covering the pager — we call it the bomb. Suddenly, all the bombs went off at once. Plastic surgery, ortho, ENT, general surgery — we were all being called at the same time, which had never happened before. We rushed down and all ended up at the same patient. And we just stood there in complete silence.
A man who was blind and mute had been left alone in a room where a dog attacked him. The dog had literally eaten every piece of flesh off his body. It was the most heartbreaking and infuriating scene I’ve ever witnessed. And the craziest part? That patient survived.
Almost every day, I’d go in to change his bandages. We fixed many of his broken bones. It really puts life in perspective. Everything can change in an instant. That’s probably one of the hardest scenes I’ve ever been part of as a doctor.
The second story is in the book. It’s about my brother Kevin, who was in the accident I mentioned earlier. He broke his C6 vertebra and became a quadriplegic. He lost function in both his arms and legs. He had a little bit of recovery, but for the most part, he was what you’d consider a quadriplegic.
Kevin was a Division One track star. He ran for Duke and was on Team USA. He had just graduated when the accident happened. Afterward, he went to Burke Rehabilitation Center in Westchester. It’s a place where some people go for things like total knee replacements, and others — usually younger — go because they’ve had catastrophic injuries, like paralysis.
Toward the end of his stay, they held the Burke Olympics. People were doing 100-meter dashes with their walkers or wheelchairs. I kept trying to convince Kevin to enter the wheelchair race. At first, he said no, but eventually he agreed, mostly just to get me to stop bothering him.
So he enters this race with a group of 80-year-olds, most of whom were recovering from joint replacements. Kevin, at 21, a former college track star, lines up in his wheelchair. The gun goes off, and the race begins. The 80-year-olds are cruising with their walkers and wheelchairs, and they all break the tape.
Kevin, meanwhile, is moving at a snail’s pace. He’s got this oversized, dorky helmet on, drooping under the weight of his head. It takes him about six pushes just to get one revolution on his wheels. Everyone else has finished, and now all the attention is on him.
People start cheering him on, urging him to finish. It takes about seven minutes for him to complete the 100-meter dash. And when he finally crosses the finish line, he looks up at me and says, “How’d I do?” And I said, “You won. You won.”
Yitzi: Wow. We love that. Let’s talk about your book. I love the title, Little Miss Diagnosed. Can you tell us what you meant by that pun?
Dr. Nance: It all started when I was on TikTok and someone sent me a DM. You probably didn’t even know doctors had DMs. Someone sent a message with the subject line “Desperate.” It said, “Dear Dr. Nance, I’ve had ten years of severe fingernail pain, and no one believes me. I’ve seen five doctors. They tell me nothing’s wrong. I feel crazy. They make me feel like I’m crazy. But I swear, if I just brush my fingertip against something, I’ll jump to the ceiling.”
I couldn’t resist. I replied, “Dear Desperate, I don’t normally talk to strangers on the internet, but out of curiosity — do you have a little blue dot under your fingernail?” She responded right away: “I do have a little blue dot.”
I told her, “You’re going to ask your doctor for an MRI of your finger. It’s going to show you have a mass underneath. It’s called a glomus tumor. You’re going to see a hand surgeon, they’ll take it out, and you’ll be cured immediately.”
About six weeks later, I got another DM. This one was titled “OMG.” She said, “Dr. Nance, you won’t believe it. I got the MRI. It showed something under my fingernail. The hand surgeon took it out — it was a glomus tumor. I don’t have any pain anymore. I’m not crazy after all. Thank you.”
What she didn’t realize was that if you go on PubMed and search for glomus tumor, my name — or rather, my maiden name, Erin McDermott — comes up. I’m one of the world’s experts on glomus tumors. But she didn’t know that when she reached out. She was just looking for someone who would believe her, because if someone believed her, then someone could help her.
What I’ve found is that diagnosis is power. So, I started a new channel called Little Miss Diagnosed. I told stories of people who had been misdiagnosed, really to raise awareness about rare diseases — or ones that aren’t actually rare but often go undiagnosed or misdiagnosed for long periods.
Things like autoimmune disorders, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, POTS, chronic fatigue syndrome, lupus — the list goes on. The common thread is that they disproportionately affect women. What began with me sharing stories from my own experience quickly snowballed. I was getting 10,000 messages a week from people asking me to share their stories, just so one other person wouldn’t have to go through what they went through.
Yitzi: Wow. As you’re talking, I can’t help but think of the TV show House.
Dr. Nance: Yes! Very similar. House actually started from a physician at Yale who wrote a column in The New York Times about misdiagnoses and unusual cases. She wrote a book, and that book became the inspiration for House.
Yitzi: You’re like the nice, kind, empathetic Dr. House.
Dr. Nance: When I first started the channel, people called me the real-life Meredith Grey. Then, as I started sharing more of these diagnostic stories, I got more comparisons to House. These days, The Pitt is probably the most popular medical show people compare me to.
What I really love about those shows — and it mirrors what physicians on social media are doing — is that it’s less about the medical procedures and more about how the doctors make their patients feel.
Those characters are beloved because they go the extra mile. They don’t give up. They don’t just refer patients to someone else because they don’t immediately know the answer. They take ownership, and they don’t stop until they help their patient find answers.
Yitzi: Amazing. Can you share what you hope readers take away from reading your book?
Dr. Nance: I think the biggest takeaway is that the most powerful drug is hope. For most people — and I actually did a TEDx Talk about this called The Seven Stages of Misdiagnosis — what I find is that, similar to the stages of grief, there’s an emotional framework people go through when they’re trying to figure out what’s wrong with them. It starts with denial, then moves to anxiety over the diagnosis, then researching the diagnosis, dealing with self-doubt — asking, “Is there really something wrong with me?” — especially when everyone’s telling them they’re fine and no one can find anything wrong. Then it often shifts into depression and later apathy.
But what I find is that there’s an alternate pathway, and that pathway is called the will to fight. To have that will to fight, you need your North Star believers. This goes back to the story I told you about the woman who messaged me about the glomus tumor. She was looking for someone who would believe her, because if someone believed her, they could help her.
So, really, the message in this book is: there are doctors out there who do believe you, who do want to help you. It may just be that you haven’t found that person yet.
Yitzi: I read that you write about the tension between clinical detachment and human empathy. In other words, a doctor is supposed to be a bit more detached, but at the same time, a patient needs empathy. How do you balance that dialectic?
Dr. Nance: I think, number one, we should be leading with kindness. What I hear from patients all the time is that they’re upset the doctor only sees them for five minutes. They’re frustrated when they get referred to yet another specialist.
A lot of that frustration stems from the system doctors operate in. Part of that system also includes needing to be a bit emotionally detached, so you can balance your objective and subjective findings. But I don’t think being emotionally reserved means you can’t treat a patient like a human being. You can still lead with kindness.
Yitzi: That’s great. If you could — let’s say you were the Director of HHS or the Surgeon General in the not-too-distant future — how would you try to implement that on a national scale, to bring in more empathy?
Dr. Nance: Number one, the focus should be on health literacy. Health literacy for all populations. Right now, what we’re dealing with — and I’m not even getting into the subject of cost, insurance, and all of that, because that’s obviously not going to change overnight — but we have a tremendous capability to empower people through health literacy. I think that’s the lowest-hanging fruit.
It’s something that, as physicians — the word “doctor” comes from the Latin docere, meaning “to teach” — we are, at our core, teachers. If we can get back to those basics of really seeing our relationship with patients as a partnership and lead with health literacy, we’ll make a real difference. And a lot of that can be done before the patient ever enters the exam room.
I understand the time constraints. Not every doctor has an hour to spend with every patient. That’s actually why I started my startup, FeelBetr, which is a physician-run social media network. I believe healthcare doesn’t start in the doctor’s office. Healthcare starts on your phone. We should be meeting people where they are — and they’re on social media, on their phones, consuming information through short-form video.
I could write the most brilliant two-page white paper on endometriosis, but no one’s probably ever going to read it. But they’ll watch a video I made that reached two million people. So I think what we can do right away is modernize how we connect and communicate with people. In the end, health literacy is what’s going to empower individuals to get better care and take care of themselves.
Yitzi: Cool. So, in terms of kindness and empathy, you’re saying that by being more of a teacher, more of an educator, the doctor helps the patient feel like a real part of the process. The patient has more clarity about what’s happening and ends up feeling more understood. Am I saying that right?
Dr. Nance: Absolutely. The more well-educated a patient is coming into their appointment, the better the connection will be with the doctor. I believe that helping educate the population before they even get to see the doctor is one of the first steps.
And we should also be including and really utilizing the patients who’ve already been through this. There’s a tremendous opportunity to learn from people with lived experiences when it comes to managing chronic illnesses or diseases. If you’re a woman with endometriosis, there’s no one you trust more than another woman with endometriosis. Lowering the barrier to make those connections and build community is ultimately what’s going to improve the health of the population.
Yitzi: Can you talk a bit about mental health? I know you’re a bone doctor, but I’m sure it’s connected. Why do you think we’re going through so many mental health challenges in this country?
Dr. Nance: From my perspective, what I see through my channel, Little Miss Diagnosed, is that the majority of patients are being misdiagnosed with psychiatric conditions when they actually have medical conditions.
For example, a 50-year-old woman walks into the ER and says she’s having difficulty breathing and her chest feels tight. She’s likely to be told she’s having a panic attack and sent home. But a 50-year-old man walks in with the same symptoms, and he’ll get an EKG and a troponin test to check for a heart attack. And the truth is, more women die from heart attacks than men. But when you close your eyes and picture someone having a heart attack, who do you see? It’s Mr. Big — it’s a man.
Part of that comes from the fact that women were excluded from medical research until 1993. Only recently have women even been included in clinical trials. The same thing goes for ADHD. When you picture someone with ADHD, you probably think of a little seven-year-old boy who can’t sit still in class. But research now shows boys and girls are equally affected.
So part of what we need to do is undo the bias that both providers and the general population have when it comes to how we think about certain diseases. That’s where FemTech comes in — it’s a whole category of startups working to address these disparities.
That’s the first issue: downplaying physical illness and instead jumping to mental illness. The second major issue is that we’re not recognizing the toll that physical illness takes on a person’s mental and emotional state.
If you’re told you’re just having a panic attack when you’re actually having a stroke, of course you’re going to feel anxious. That’s part of why I came up with the Seven Stages of Misdiagnosis — to help validate what people are feeling. It’s normal to feel anxious when your diagnosis is uncertain. It’s normal to feel depressed, sad, and exhausted when you’ve seen 10 doctors and no one can tell you what’s wrong.
We need to provide more mental health support around physical diagnoses. It’s just as important as the support we give to people who are diagnosed with mental illness alone.
Yitzi: Do you agree with the following statement I heard this week? That America doesn’t have a diabetes problem, or a heart disease problem, or a cholesterol problem. Really, we have a nutrition and eating problem, and everything else is downstream from that. Do you agree with that?
Dr. Nance: I would say, as a generalization, yes. The majority of chronic illness problems can at least be linked to various triggers that include nutrition and environment. For example, why is there such a high percentage of kids with asthma in low-income neighborhoods? It’s because the air quality is poor.
I do believe many people have some kind of genetic predisposition, but for a lot of issues, the causes are at least partially reversible, which means the outcomes can be as well. At the same time, there are diseases that stem from true genetic defects, and the more we study them, the more we’ll find.
So I think it’s a combination — more personalized diagnostics and therapeutics, alongside optimizing nutrition, food access, and the environments we live in.
Yitzi: So if you were to fix our health system, would you put more emphasis on preventative measures and nutrition?
Dr. Nance: 100 percent. That’s a no-brainer — making our food more nutritious should be a priority. But as part of that, we also have to acknowledge the other issues that make it hard for people to eat nutritious foods.
People don’t have a living wage. Some don’t have access to a grocery store with fresh produce within 50 miles. So it’s one thing to tell a patient, “Eat more fruits and vegetables.” We’ve been saying that for 100 years.
There’s a reason drugs like GLP-1s and Ozempic are so popular. If it were as easy as just eating fruits and vegetables, no one would be spending $1,200 a month on those medications. So there are systemic, societal issues that need to be addressed at the same time. It’s an oversimplification to just put the responsibility on the individual and say, “Eat better.”
Yitzi: That’s great. Since you brought it up, let me just ask, what are your thoughts about the long-term viability of using something like Ozempic for weight control?
Dr. Nance: I think you have to think of it in terms of why you’re using it in the first place. There are women with PCOS, or polycystic ovarian syndrome, and you could tell them to exercise an hour a day and eat only fruits and vegetables, and they still wouldn’t lose weight. They’re growing hair on their face. That’s something that’s not going to change with just environmental interventions.
So for people who have a root cause that we don’t yet have many other options to treat, I think medications like GLP-1s can be absolute lifesavers. And I think the bigger point is that what GLP-1s have really shown us is that being overweight isn’t a moral failing. There are real medical issues that can prevent people from losing weight through traditional methods like eating less, eating healthier, and exercising more.
I don’t even know what the actual long-term outcomes of GLP-1s will be, but I can tell you that people are living their best lives on these medications. That said, GLP-1s may not be appropriate for everyone. So we need to look for other ways to help people reach a weight that’s healthy for them, one that reduces their risk of heart attacks, strokes, and diabetes-related complications like losing a foot.
Yitzi: How about sleep? You’re the expert, but my understanding is that when we sleep, our body heals and rejuvenates. But it feels like it’s becoming harder to get good sleep these days because there are so many distractions keeping us up late. What would you recommend for our country to get better sleep?
Dr. Nance: I’m probably the number one sleep offender. People ask me how I have time to see patients, do my podcast, and create my TikTok content. My first year on TikTok, I filmed almost all my content from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. most nights.
I’ve spent almost my entire adult life conditioned to being on call and operating on very little sleep. But I will say that sleep is probably the best indicator of your overall health. If you’re able to sleep and feel rested, you’re doing something right.
Sleep is very personal and individualized. What works for you may not work for me. There’s no magical number of hours. Some people function fine on six hours. Others need 10, 11, or even 12. Teenagers are a great example — they’re going through huge physical changes, which is why they’re so tired. They’re not being lazy. The same thing happens when women go through perimenopause and menopause. Hormonal shifts during that time affect every cell in the body.
Sleep is absolutely critical for overall health. One thing I always say is, if you’re doing everything right — putting your phone away, not watching TV before bed, avoiding caffeine, not eating too late — but you’re still not getting good sleep, then it’s time to consider a medical reason.
That could be sleep apnea, anxiety, or some kind of psychiatric condition that’s interfering with your ability to sleep. After you’ve tried the things within your control, talking with a healthcare provider is definitely worth it.
Yitzi: This is our signature question. Dr. Nance, you’ve been blessed with a lot of success, and I’m sure you’ve learned a lot from your experiences. Can you share five things you’ve learned now that you wish you knew when you first started medicine, started as a doctor?
Dr. Nance: All right, five things. This will be a mix of advice for both patients and other doctors.
- Number one is to treat everyone with kindness, the way you would want to be treated. I know the names of my attendings, residents, nurses, X-ray techs, janitors. We’re all on the same team, and we should treat each other with the same level of respect.
- Number two — and I know this is really hard to do in the moment — is to be grateful for every day. In my book, I talk about being on call for 36 hours straight, not eating, not drinking, not even going to the bathroom. It was chaotic. But when I look back, those were the best years of my life, even though I was only getting two hours of sleep a night. I was just grateful to be in a position to help people in their greatest time of need.
- Number three is something a mentor of mine, Chit Ranawat, once said: “The eyes only see what the mind knows.” If you go see a doctor who doesn’t know what POTS is, you’re never going to be diagnosed with POTS. I firmly believe patients should feel free to get second opinions, and no doctor should feel threatened by that.
- Number four is that I wish I had realized how hard it would be to get pregnant after going through all my training. Female orthopedic surgeons have twice the rate of infertility as the general population and four times the rate of breast cancer. That wasn’t disclosed or even studied when I was going through it. I’m the only female orthopedic surgeon I know who had a child without medical intervention. So I think it’s important — especially for women in demanding careers — to understand our biological timelines. We have more resources now, like egg freezing, and it’s something to consider as early as possible.
- And number five — what I wish I had known — is how much I’d rely on and be grateful for my husband, family, and friends for getting me through all the hard times. The road to becoming a surgeon is punishing. I met my husband when I was 18, and we got married during residency. I always say thank goodness I didn’t have to date during that time, because I would have been undateable. I would have blown people off, missed all the dates, couldn’t attend weddings or social events. So the last thing is to really appreciate the people who support you on your journey. They make it possible for you to get where you want to go.
Yitzi: Beautiful. Briefly, can you share with our readers the self-care routines you do to help your body, mind, and heart thrive?
Dr. Nance: Well, number one — and I always joke about this — so my book is coming out on June 3rd. I’m a new author, and when I was interviewing with publishing houses, they’d ask, “Who’s your favorite author?” And I’d say, “Does Us Weekly count?” That was all I had the mental capacity for — reading tabloid magazines or watching Bravo TV.
I always tell people, it doesn’t really matter what you do, as long as it’s something you enjoy and you don’t care what anyone thinks while you’re doing it. For me, that’s always been my guilty pleasure. That, and getting pedicures — because as surgeons, we’re not allowed to get manicures.
Yitzi: Nice. Wonderful. This is our final aspirational question. Dr. Nance, because of your amazing work and the platform you’ve built, you’re a person of enormous influence. If you could spread an idea or inspire a movement that would bring the most good to the most people, what would that be?
Dr. Nance: This is the perfect question, because it’s really at the heart of my new digital health platform, FeelBetr. At its core, FeelBetr is based on the belief that people are the best medicine. I believe that those with lived experience are the ones we should be building communities around — especially for people searching for a diagnosis or who are newly diagnosed.
People ask me, “Once someone gets diagnosed with something like breast cancer and has been through it all, why would they spend time on the platform?” And I tell them, it’s because nothing makes them feel better than sharing their experience with someone newly diagnosed. It’s a form of paying it forward. If we lead with kindness and form these communities, people truly are the best medicine.
Yitzi: How can our readers continue to follow your work? How can they purchase or pre-order your book? How can they support you in any possible way?
Dr. Nance: Luckily, there are lots of ways people can stay involved in the conversation. I’m primarily on TikTok at @LittleMissDiagnosed. My Instagram handle is @DoctorErinNance.
I also have a podcast every Wednesday called The Medical Detectives. It’s where patients share their stories of misdiagnosis. It’s kind of a House-style podcast, where we follow along with their journey. If any of your readers have a story they’d love to share, they can reach out to stories@themedicaldetectivespodcast.com.
And then there’s my book, Little Miss Diagnosed, being published by HarperCollins and coming out June 3rd. It’ll be available at Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and local bookstores.
What I’m really excited about is the FeelBetr platform, which I think of as a modern WebMD. It’s launching on June 20th in the App Store. I can’t wait to have users join us to support one another, share experiences, and have a safe, trusted place to get credible health information.
Yitzi: Dr. Nance, it’s really been an honor and a pure delight to talk to you. I wish you continued success and good health, and I hope we can do this again next year.
Dr. Nance: Thank you, Yitzi. This was amazing. As I said, I really love your platform and the diversity of thought and experience you bring. You obviously have a very elevated readership base. I think they want to be part of the story as well. That’s what I’ve learned most from my TikTok content. If you analyze my videos that go viral, the most liked ones are because of the comments — the things people leave behind. Bringing stories that help put them in the conversation are probably, I’m assuming, your most successful ones, because we have a lot to learn from them too.
Dr. Erin Nance on ‘Little Miss Diagnosed,’ Medical Bias, and Why Empathy Is Modern Medicine’s… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.