Meet Dr Divya and Dr Manan Vora–the health content creators you need to follow

The award-winning duo is busting myths about everything from the morning-after pill to what really happens when you crack your knuckles, one reel at a time

How often have you Googled a minor health symptom and found yourself down a rabbit hole reading about a possible life-threatening disorder? We’ve all been there, done that. The Internet provides easy access to information on just about anything, but it comes with its own caveats. Previously, medical professionals would ask patients to refrain from taking health advice from random websites, and today, we all need to be wary of Instagram as well. The freedom it provides to anybody to share what they want can lead to a lot of misinformation and the circulation of ‘free’ advice by sources with no credibility. This is exactly where Dr Divya and Dr Manan Vora’s work as health-focused content creators stands out. 

Dr Divya Vora, also known as @thegirldocnextdoor, is an obstetrician and gynaecologist with a community of 100k+ followers while Dr.Manan Vora, also known as The Sports Ortho, is an orthopaedic and sports medicine doctor with over 160k followers on Instagram. The award-winning duo—both of them recently won the Top 10 Health Influencers in India award at the IHW Digital Health Awards— is set to make credible health information accessible to everyone through tongue-in-cheek content that’s easy to consume, engage with and share. 

They met as first-year medical school students in 2011, have been together for the past five years, married for almost three years and are content creators since 2021. “We’ve been discussing entering the digital creator space for a while and Manan used to keep pushing me to do it,” says Divya. “I had time on my hands while pursuing my post-graduation in West Bengal. It was also during the pandemic and we both found ourselves catering to more COVID-19 patients as opposed to those from our own specialties. I started the page as a way to build awareness around women’s health because I found that it had become very difficult for people to access even basic healthcare at the time. Manan created his page then as well with the same idea of creating awareness and working towards preventing diseases, disorders and health concerns.”

The No-Judgement Girl Doc Next Door: Dr Divya Vora

“I’m hoping that women following me [on Instagram] are able to understand their bodies much better—what a normal period is, what a pregnancy is, what kind of issues can take place with their reproductive systems, and have enough knowledge about what is going on with them to be able to know when to seek help, and when it’s okay not to as well,” she says. “It’s about each one teaching one. If I am able to teach someone who can tell one other person that this is how your body should be working or this is how it works, I would be grateful.” A lot of women in India, especially those who are young and unmarried, find themselves facing judgement at the hands of gynaecologists. “My page also helps people reach out to me, a non-judgmental doctor whom they can share their issues with without being worried about being judged or not [via teleconsults],” she says. 

The Fitness-Forward Sports Ortho: Dr Manan Vora

For Dr Manan, his focus lies on helping people make better lifestyle choices for a fitter life ahead. “I hope to build a community that is conscious about their health and overall wellbeing, one that cares about taking steps today to live a better tomorrow, that understands the importance of physical and mental health and its role in day-to-day life. I’m a big believer of prevention being better than cure and certain steps that we can take today, certain habits that we can incorporate, changes that we can bring about to our lifestyle, can go a long way in preventing many lifestyle diseases and orthopaedic conditions in the future.”

Standing out amongst the noise of content

Both Divya and Manan have the certifications to position themselves as credible sources of health-related information, and that’s what they’re capitalising on. “We’re strong believers of evidence-based medicine; it’s what we’ve been studying and talking about and trying to make our audience aware of as well,” says Divya. “We make sure that we have enough research to back up our reels, videos and posts along with the knowledge we have garnered over the last 10-12 years that we’ve been studying.”

Even then, how do they manage to make their audience sit back and engage? “There are a lot of health content creators, but the idea is to be creative in terms of how we execute information, to be fun, engaging, relatable and find a way to connect with the listener to keep them captivated,” says Manan. Their reels are snappy, always with a thought-provoking opening slide or question, and infused with clips from Bollywood movies and pop culture to keep the content informative, yet light. “While the information is all out there anyway, available on the Internet, it is more about how we compile it and break down complex things into simple, easy-to consume matter and present it to the viewer in a fun way.” 

The Most Frequently Asked Questions: Health Edition

The couple brainstorms themselves, along with asking their community via stickers on Instagram stories, refer to the direct messages they receive and then plan the topics they choose to cover. Some of the most common questions Manan gets asked: Sounds that occur when people crack their knuckles or move their joints—whether that's harmful or not? Should they apply ice or heat if they get injured? There are also questions around nutrition usually pertaining to weight loss.“The idea is to provide people with information about bone and joint health, exercise, fitness and nutrition, to bust myths and let them know about the most common things that we otherwise consider simple, but ones that actually leave doubts in people's minds,” he says.

Divya, on the other hand, hears from women dealing with period trouble. She receives at least 20 direct messages a day with women asking her about their delayed period, or mentioning that they took the morning-after pill after intercourse and are yet to get their period. “The awareness of taking an emergency contraceptive pill or knowing that your period can be delayed or can occur earlier for a couple of cycles is absolutely normal, but most people don't know that,” she says, citing the worried messages. “In order to reach out to more people in the country, it would be essential for me to associate with more companies, NGOs and organisations that cater to the rural population and talk to them about their health issues. The idea is to be associated with these organisations and make sure we reach the deepest corners of the country.”

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