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This is the premise of the issue that the author assumes, that doctors are somehow gatekeeping a cure to the common cold/flu -- a premise which is generally unt

This is the premise of the issue that the author assumes, that doctors are somehow gatekeeping a cure to the common cold/flu -- a premise which is generally untrue. But, as the author's example, a cold/flu; is not generally useful to doctors, because doctors can not fight a cold. At worst, they get more visits from people with colds in their waiting rooms, are pressured into over prescribing antibiotics - which impact the individual's gut biome and society's antibiotic resistance. What's extremely odd, is an article like this in the time of telemedicine; advantageous because it uses less of a provider's time, is typically lower cost, and reduces chance of office visit infections; and of which there are very few actionable outcomes.

NoPicklez 2y ago
Humans are complex in their emotions, they might see a metric on their wearable device that alarms them that shouldn't and they visit a hospital out of concern. People who are more "hypochondriacs" might be more likely to buy wearables and hawk eye anything that becomes out of baseline. You can't likely help those people unless you address their underlying sensitivity to their health. At the end of the day, smart devices have made people more aware of their bodies particular vitals and therefore will create more people asking for help out of concern, of which for the majority isn't likely to cause anything of concern