Good medicine depends on an independent therapeutic relationship, where doctors consider context, alternatives and risk. Vertically integrated telehealth can weaken the separation between prescribing and dispensing. When care is fragmented or disconnected from a patient’s usual GP, the risks include inappropriate prescribing, delayed diagnosis and the transfer of consequences to patients and the public health system.
The problem is not technology or innovation, but what we optimise for. Digital health can improve access, but healthcare should not turn human vulnerability into pharmaceutical demand. A healthy system should strengthen independent, preventive and relationship-based care—not measure success by prescriptions, subscriptions or how medicated a population becomes.
