Hospital warns of AI-generated videos falsely showing doctors endorsing weight loss products

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By Daniel Pye

Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust has warned patients about fraudulent videos circulating on social media that appear to show its clinicians endorsing weight loss patches.

The hospital believes the adverts have been created using artificial intelligence. In a statement on its website, the trust said it is aware of multiple videos that falsely claim its doctors are using and endorsing these products.

Dr Daghni Rajasingam, deputy chief medical officer, said: “We have checked the names of these doctors, they are not names that exist among our staff members, and as far as we know, they are AI generated images.”

“It is fraudulent and it is a scam,” she added.

The trust is working to get the videos taken down and has encouraged people to report them to the social media platform they appear on.

Mr Inderpaul Birdi, a cardiothoracic surgeon, has said the issue of online content creators presenting themselves as doctors or medical experts is a “growing concern” for the medical community.

The accounts focus on topics of great public interest, such as cancer cures, reversing heart disease, hormone optimisation and longevity, often promoting supplements or stirring fear against conventional treatments, he said.

“These creators speak with a confidence that belies their lack of identifiable clinical training, often tackling complex medical topics. Their content frequently falls into predictable patterns, favouring high-impact, emotive, and oversimplified narratives.”

A key feature is “is the replacement of medical nuance with absolute certainty - a certainty that rarely exists in genuine clinical practice,” Mr Birdi added.

The motivations behind the accounts appear to be commercial gain, driving traffic to sell supplements, courses or private accounts, and seeking influence and rapid follower growth in a crowded digital economy “where authority drives clicks”.

“The appeal of posing as a doctor is clear: it co-opts the inherent trust and authority vested in the medical profession.”

AI videos create confusion, Mr Birdi said, leaving patients anxious and resistant to evidence-based advice from their own qualified clinicians. It is a “direct threat to public health,” he warned.

He called for platforms to do more to verify the credentials of accounts providing health advice, and regulators and professional bodies to issue clearer guidance on the misuse of AI and impersonation.

Doctors must engage online with integrity, he said, the answer to misinformation “is not silence but a credible, evidence-based presence”.

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