In addition to health misinformation online, health seekers need to be warned about online telehealth organizations sharing their personal information. Cerebral has revealed it shared the private health information, including mental health assessments, of more than 3.1 million patients in the United States with advertisers and social media giants like Facebook, Google, and TikTok. That’s more than a “oops”

To gauge the level of health misinformation, all one has to do is go to LinkedIn. Numerous stories about “potential” new treatments lack context about their development. Now comes word that there may be gastric side effects from using the latest weight loss drugs. The media is using headlines to attract attention, but they aren’t doing their job to investigate an inform.

There is no doubt that the digital environment is going through a shakeout. Except for TikTok, social media use is declining, and even Amazon is finding out that technology can’t lead to more profits. The way people search for health information has plateaued, but Dr. Internet will still be the first place many people look for health information. Here are some things some DTC marketers should focus on.

More than 25 million people will use the internet to search for health information. Estimates vary regarding the number of medically related sites on the web, but they number at least 100 000. Only about half of these sites have their content reviewed by doctors. The biggest problem with obtaining health information from the internet is that it is not always easy to decide what is reliable.