TikTok and telehealth ... Dr Mukwevho tackles the controversy

Dr Mimi Mukwevho knew she wanted to be a doctor when she was 10 years old, but instead of setting up a local general practice in the Venda village where she grew up, as she had imagined herself doing, she has no physical consulting rooms, conducting almost all of her consultations online. Mukwevho has been practising telehealth since 2022, contracted to a company offering the service. She meets most of her patients on screen, and only occasionally does hybrid sessions or home visits. She can do consultations from anywhere in the world, she says. Mukwevho says telehealth became popular during the Covid lockdown years and now there is no going back. While she sings the advantages of telehealth, Mukwevho concedes that public scepticism about the practice continues, and regulation hasn’t yet caught up with this mode of consulting.