Not until the advent of modern medicine did people begin to rely on systematic scientific explanations of illness. Before that, understanding of disease, cure and longevity was largely shaped through stories, constructed from what was known, imagined and shared within communities. These stories often filled gaps created by uncertainty and vulnerability. Such vulnerability, for instance, arises from suffering due to illness, conditions, or disabilities that are not fully understood and may not have clear solutions. Responding to vulnerability is not new; it is deeply rooted in the survival instinct of Homo sapiens.

When faced with the threat of illness, individuals naturally seek information from others, much as people today turn to social media. Social media has become a major platform for storytelling, used by political actors, clinicians and ordinary individuals alike. Across human history, people have tended to respond more strongly to narratives than to numbers or abstract facts alone. In part, these realisations have led to approaches that place communities at the centre, sometimes conceptualised under the term ‘community engagement’. Nonetheless, simple dissemination of scientific facts to communities, even when activities are carried out at the community level, can fail because the traditional categorisation of health information provider and receiver does not seem to work as expected. Instead, scientific facts need to be tailored to communities, their customs and traditions and their ways of understanding. Most importantly, they must be relatable to their day-to-day lives. To achieve this, we need to return to what we have long valued: The power of stories and narratives. Throughout history, stories have served humans as a fabric of bonding, motivation and survival.

For example, a typical public health message, such as ‘taking antibiotics without diagnosis is harmful’ often carries less impact than a narrative describing ‘a man who began with a simple sore throat, took antibiotics repeatedly from a local shop, and years later found himself in an intensive care unit, fighting an infection no drug could easily treat.’ Humans have a deep-seated inclination toward stories of suffering, resilience and survival. This is evident in our admiration for novels, films and drama. Scientific facts, when presented in isolation, can feel distant and disengaging. If the goal is long-term understanding and behavioural change, storytelling becomes a powerful medium through which science can be communicated with relevance.

At the same time, the authenticity of stories depends on the integrity of those who tell them, even though authenticity itself can be difficult to define. Humans have long been captivated by fiction more than by facts alone. As Yuval Noah Harari notes in Sapiens, concepts such as money began as shared fictions but evolved into powerful systems built on trust. In a similar way, social media platforms are increasingly becoming sites where trust in health information is negotiated.

These platforms are now widely used to seek healthcare advice. While the reliability of information varies, their strength lies in storytelling. As Arthur Kleinman argues, people make sense of illness through narratives rather than purely clinical explanations. When a story engages both emotion and reasoning and is relatable, it is more likely to be trusted and remembered than data alone. What resonates emotionally tends to endure, and stories are powerful carriers of such resonance.

Nepal’s healthcare system, traditionally structured around formal and informal services, is already being influenced by social media and, more recently, artificial intelligence. While inaccuracies can sometimes be corrected, the growing challenge of misinformation, or an infodemic, remains. The question is whether Nepal’s health system is prepared to address this shift. The answer may lie not in avoiding these platforms but in using them more effectively. Spaces that currently enable misinformation can also be transformed into sources of reliable, accessible health communication.

Although Nepal’s eHealth Strategy (2017) and the Digital Nepal Framework (2019) provide a roadmap, implementation of electronic medical records, telemedicine and integrated systems continues to face challenges such as infrastructure limitations and barriers in rural areas. Nonetheless, progress through systems such as the Integrated Health Information Management System and DHIS2 indicates a gradual move towards digitalisation.

Despite this progress, social media remains an underutilised space for public health. While there have been encouraging efforts in areas such as maternal and child health, and more recently, Covid-19, much more can be done across a wider range of conditions. Increasing engagement by clinicians in recent years also demonstrates the potential benefits of these platforms. This presents an opportunity for Nepal’s health system to act proactively and strategically, with storytelling at the heart of its communication efforts.

Stories are among the most effective forms of communication across both the humanities and the sciences. A well-crafted narrative about the benefits of a medicine or a healthy behaviour can reach far wider audiences than traditional scientific messaging. At the same time, negative or misleading stories can spread just as easily because they appeal to emotion and sensationalism. This makes it essential for health systems to embrace stories as part of their health messaging.

Stories of suffering, illness and delayed treatment are often hidden behind barriers to care. Acknowledging other constraints, such barriers can be reframed into narratives that promote timely care-seeking. For instance, stories about successful tuberculosis treatment can encourage early diagnosis, reduce transmission in the community, and prevent avoidable deaths, outcomes that extend beyond what statistics alone can convey.

Now is the time for Nepal’s health system to embrace health storytelling as a central tool for public health. In a world shaped by narratives, effective communication requires more than facts. This does not mean replacing science with stories but rather embedding scientific evidence within narratives that people can relate to, trust, and act upon. For policymakers, this calls for investing not only in digital systems and infrastructure, but also in a historically valued human trait, storytelling, to communicate meaningfully with communities. For clinicians and public health practitioners, it means translating everyday clinical experiences into stories that resonate beyond clinical protocols. For communities, it offers a space to voice lived realities that often remain unincorporated in formal systems. Ultimately, saving even one life represents an entire world for that individual, something no statistic can do justice to. Bridging science with storytelling may therefore be one of the most practical ways to strengthen trust, improve health-seeking behaviour and make public health more responsive to the people it seeks to serve.

Adhikari is a senior scientist at the University of Oxford and the author of ‘Diaries in Global Health: A Southern Perspective’.