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. Equally controversial is Mukwevho’s other passion: her TikTok channel offering advice on weight-loss drugs. On the dangers of dispensing medical advice on social media, Mukwevho emphasises responsibility and awareness of the weight that a medical doctor’s word carries with the public. Catch Mukwevho in the latest episode of Why Did I Become a Doctor, in partnership with MedicalBrief, in an interview that’s bound to stir debate. MedicalBrief readers get early access to the interview by clicking here.
TikTok and telehealth … Dr Mukwevho tackles the controversy
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