"Not long ago, I cared for a middle-aged man I'll call Jim, who was generally healthy but had recently started to feel sluggish. One of his friends told him to try a hormone supplement. After Jim saw on social media that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the Trump Administration's Secretary of Health and Human Services, had endorsed supplements as a part of an "anti-aging" regimen, he ordered one from a telehealth company."
"What struck me about Jim's case was that, until the moment he limped into the hospital where I work, his journey had taken place entirely outside of the traditional health-care system. He found a remedy through word of mouth; social media and the Make America Healthy Again movement lent credibility to it; and a direct-to-consumer company supplied it. A.I. diagnosed his blood clot-I only confirmed it. Jim hadn't been seen by a doctor in years."
A middle-aged man obtained a hormone supplement after social-media and political endorsement and ordered it from a telehealth company, later developing a blood clot that required emergency care. His initial diagnosis path occurred largely outside the traditional health-care system, with A.I. tools prompting concern before clinical confirmation. A.I., wellness influencers, longevity entrepreneurs, political movements, and direct-to-consumer companies are challenging clinicians' authority. For much of the twentieth century, clinicians held near-monopoly over medical knowledge and gatekeeping. That monopoly has eroded, and clinicians must emphasize the healer role rather than a gatekeeper or high-priest posture to rebuild trust.
Read at The New Yorker
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