Secret shopper study reveals questionable telehealth GLP-1 practices

Katie covers the influence of well being know-how on sufferers, clinicians, and companies. Her tales discover the value tag of medical AI, digital well being on the FDA, and the increase in direct-to-consumer telehealth. Confidential suggestions may be despatched on Sign at palmer.01.

A secret shopper examine has pulled again the veil on the practices of almost 50 telehealth websites that prescribe widespread GLP-1 medicines for weight reduction.

Direct-to-consumer telehealth firms have grown quickly in response to sufferers’ demand for GLP-1s like semaglutide and tirzepatide, particularly after shortages created a marketplace for compounded variations that aren’t authorised by the Meals and Drug Administration. As on-line prescribing has grown, clinicians and public well being specialists have raised issues concerning the potential for lax digital care practices to place sufferers in danger. 

In a examine printed Monday within the Journal of the American Medical Affiliation, one researcher at Yale College got down to doc these on-line prescriptions by posing as a affected person. The outcomes seize what many People have realized in the previous few years: It’s terribly quick and straightforward to get a GLP-1 on-line.