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Mapping the Landscape of Do-it-Yourself Medicine
1Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, 423 Guardian Drive, Philadelphia, PA 19104, US.
Citizen Science : Theory and Practice
|January 12, 2023
Summary
Do-it-yourself (DIY) medicine is a growing trend where individuals self-treat conditions outside clinics, using accessible research. This paper analyzes DIY medicine across various fields, identifying common features and growth factors.
Area of Science:
- Biomedical Citizen Science
- Medical Sociology
- Health Innovation
Background:
- Traditional medicine is confined to clinical settings.
- Patients increasingly access ongoing medical research.
- This has led to a rise in do-it-yourself (DIY) medicine.
Purpose of the Study:
- To recognize DIY medicine as a cross-cutting phenomenon.
- To map the varieties of DIY medicine across domains.
- To identify key factors driving its creation, growth, and uptake.
Main Methods:
- Literature review and synthesis of existing scholarship on DIY medicine.
- Analysis of case studies across different medical domains (neurology, gastroenterology, endocrinology).
- Identification of common features and underlying factors contributing to DIY medicine.
Main Results:
- DIY medicine manifests across diverse fields, including DIY brain stimulation, fecal transplantation, and artificial pancreas systems.
- Common features link these independent DIY initiatives.
- Four key factors are identified as drivers for the creation, growth, and uptake of DIY medicine.
Conclusions:
- DIY medicine is an understudied but significant area of biomedical citizen science.
- This phenomenon is likely to expand considerably in the coming years.
- Understanding the factors driving DIY medicine is crucial for future healthcare innovation and policy.
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