How to spot a fake digital health expert

Digital health advancements have provided fertile ground for the rise of fake experts. Additionally, these “experts” are numerous and reside on LinkedIn.

Digital health, across its numerous, ever-evolving forms, has no doubt seen an accelerated growth trajectory recently. Advancements led to a lack of human expertise in the general population, among other things. So, there is a gap between what we should know about digital health and what we actually know. This has created a phenomenon where enthusiasts were allowed to call themselves experts.

I have found several warning signs that help me spot a fake expert. Early disclaimer: I am not saying that someone engaging in these activities is automatically a fake expert.

1. They rely on posting predominantly news, with no opinion of their own

2. They rely on posting predominantly obscure frameworks or “Top 10s” with no insight

3. They make future predictions based on a weak foundation (i.e., flawed research and assessment methodologies or a complete disregard for methodology; this applies a lot to new technologies)

4. They post every single day (this one will be controversial, but I found that generally actual experts have a day job)

5. They make cliché statements, often copied from other people/industries. My favourite is “AI will not replace doctors, but those doctors that use AI will replace those that don’t” and its variants. This has been infinitely recycled and if you dissect it, it doesn’t even make sense.

OK, so where are the experts? It’s very difficult to be an expert at anything, that’s why there are supposed to be few of them, there’s a pyramid of competence. Working in digital health, I have encountered some experts. The ones I know work in teams, they have experience with developing and launching actual products, they have worked with actual patients, etc. Most of the expertise comes from doing, not from reading one piece of news and writing four articles about it during an afternoon.

So, trust but verify. Or rather, consume, but dig deeper. You can consume content as interesting news, for example, but don’t just accept it as fact. You can easily do your own research, starting with source credibility. If you do consider yourself an expert, it’s possible that you should ground yourself in reality a bit more.

Disclaimer: I am not a digital health expert, I’m an enthusiast.

I hope you enjoyed reading and please let me know your thoughts.

All the best,

Roland.