The New “Paging Dr. Google?” DTC-AI for Health Care
By Jane Sarasohn-Kahn on 17 March 2025 in AI and health, Amazon, Apple, Artificial intelligence, Augmented intelligence, Big Tech, Bioethics, ChatGPT, Cognitive computing and health, Computers and health, Connected health, Consumer electronics, Consumer experience, Consumer-directed health, Cybersecurity, Data analytics and health, Design and health, Digital health, Digital therapeutics, DIY, DTC health, EHRs, Electronic health records, Electronic medical records, GenAI, Health access, Health apps, Health at home, Health Consumers, Health disparities, Health ecosystem, Health engagement, Health literacy, Health media, Health privacy, Health Quality, Healthcare access, Home care, Home health, Large language models LLMs, medical home, Omnichannel healthcare, Participatory health, Patient engagement, Patient experience, Popular culture and health, Primary care, Retail health, Risk management, Security and health data, Self-care, Social networks and health, Sustainability, Techquity, Trust, Women and health
While most people in the U.S. who have used large language models (like ChatGPT) for informal learning, entertainment, and getting information about products and services, 39% of U.S. adults have also tapped into LLMs to source information about physical or mental health. This insight is brought to us in the brilliantly titled report, Close encounters of the AI kind, from the Imagining the Digital Future Center at Elon University. The principle author of the survey report is the Center’s Director, Lee Rainie, whose name many of you will know from his two+ decade career at the Pew Research Center (and
Jane will deliver the keynote address at the upcoming Paradigm Management Services 2025 Innovation Summit in Nashville on 28th March. We'll focus on equitable outcomes in a changing society, addressing drivers of health, barriers to techquity, and opportunities for joyful collaborations for the health of all people.
Thank you, Jared Johnson, for including me on the list of the "Top Voices of Consumer-Centered Healthcare." Your curated community includes some of my closest colleagues and friends in the field to whom I also turn for that health consumer-focused lens. The patient - consumer, caregiver, health citizen - is the primary noun in health/care and self-care is primary care. My thanks for this call-out, JJ!
I am so grateful to Tom Lawry for asking me to pen the foreword for his book, Health Care Nation, which will be published in late March 2025. Tom, known for his pioneering leadership in AI, has rediscovered his voice for health policy -- and health citizenship. He is asking Big Questions and asking us to do the same -- and act on those insights for our own health, the health of people we love, and the health of our fellow health citizens. The uplifting subtitle: "The future is calling and it's better than you think." Onward!