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3 Ways Doctors Can Win Back Gen Z, Millennial Patients
Ask people how much they expect to change over the next 10 years, and most will say 'not much.' Ask them how much they've changed in the past decade, and the answer flips. Regardless of age, the past always feels more transformative than the future.
This blind spot has a name: the end-of-history illusion. Researchers have shown that people of all ages underestimate how much they'll change in the years ahead, even as they readily acknowledge how much they've changed already. The result is a persistent illusion that life, and the values and behaviors that shape it, will remain unchanged.
The illusion plays out not just individually, but generationally. Older generations assume that younger ones will follow the traditional, familiar paths. And, of course, they never do.
Most of the time, these generational differences surface in harmless ways (e.g., at the dinner table during holidays). But the consequences prove far more serious when leaders in politics, the military and medicine make similar errors in judgement.
Cracks In The Globe
Two recent events reveal what happens when individuals and institutions fail to recognize that the world around them has changed.
In New York City, a little-known 33-year-old Democratic Socialist, Zohran Mamdani, defeated a former governor and establishment favorite in the mayoral primary. Despite being massively outspent on TV advertising, Mamdani won by embracing Instagram, short videos and grassroots tactics to motivate and mobilize voters.
Half a world away, in Ukraine, the most effective tool against the Russian military hasn't been fighter jets or tanks but cheap, camera-mounted drones. Some cost only a few hundred dollars, yet they've repeatedly destroyed military hardware worth millions. Analysts warn that future wars will be shaped by low-cost, decentralized technologies rather than the armaments of the past. This is a shift that traditional military powers like the U.S. have been slow to embrace.
But these aren't just political and military anecdotes. They're examples of what happens when people assume the strategies that worked yesterday will deliver results tomorrow. In each case, when people failed to recognize that the environment had shifted, they lost their advantage and paid a price.
The same risk now looms over medicine. With Gen Z and Millennials making up more than 40% of the U.S. population, clinicians must update how they communicate and deliver care. If they don't, their voice will go unheard; their influence lost.
Medicine's Lost Battle For Attention
For generations, physicians assumed that donning the white coat guaranteed them respect. And for decades, it did. Their intelligence, years of training and professional status earned them the trust of their patients.
But just as circumstances have changed in voting booths and battlefields, so has the formula for capturing patient attention.
While Boomer and Gen X patients continue to rely on information from medical experts, younger generations now turn to TikTok videos, Reddit threads and Google reviews for healthcare decisions. Whether physicians consider these sources credible is beside the point. Gen Z and Millennials increasingly use and trust them.
3 Ways To Win The Battle Of Trust
This schism isn't about one generation being right and another wrong. It's the classic pattern of cultural evolution creating a generational mismatch. If the medical profession fails to (a) recognize its existence and (b) close the gap, then these patterns will solidify. And if that happens, clinical outcomes will suffer and so will the health of our nation.
Fortunately, at this point, the disconnect between doctors and younger generations of patients can be repaired. Here are three ways clinicians can move toward that goal:
Most Gen X and Boomer physicians were trained to tell patients 'the right answer.' And many patients still want that. But with Gen Zs and Millennials, a top-down approach typically backfires.
Researchers who study communication styles describe a key distinction between those who 'tell' the answers versus those who ask for input and share in decision-making. In general, older generations of patients tend to be comfortable with the former while younger ones expect the latter.
Importantly, studies show that when a doctor's communication style doesn't match a patient's preference, trust and adherence suffer. In contrast, shared decision-making — where physicians present options and engage patients in choosing a path forward — is essential for younger generations, improving satisfaction, understanding and outcomes.
When exchanging medical data, booking office visits and educating patients, most medical practices still rely on fax machines, printed handouts and phone-based scheduling. But for generations raised on smartphones, these traditional modes of communication require too much time and signal outdated thinking.
Surveys show that Gen Z and Millennials prefer text-based follow-ups, digital scheduling tools and mobile health apps. A healthy reminder to doctors: Even the clearest message will be missed or ignored if it's delivered via the wrong channel.
Older generations tend to value long-term relationships with a personal physician. Younger generations prioritize speed, convenience and flexibility.
When they have a medical problem, particularly one that is routine or embarrassing, they are more inclined to visit urgent care, schedule a telemedicine appointment or consult AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude for quick answers.
To remain a trusted source, physicians will need to adapt. Telehealth, asynchronous messaging and digital intake tools align with Gen Z and Millennial preferences while also saving physicians time, reducing overhead and improving efficiency without sacrificing outcomes.
At a national level, if medical societies and public health institutions want to reach younger patients, they will need to modify how they deliver information.
Long lectures and dense PDFs may satisfy academic audiences, but a mobile-native generation responds far better to short videos, Instagram stories and clear infographics. And rather than cautioning primarily about life-threatening medical problems like heart attacks and cancer, doctors should focus on the concerns facing individuals in their twenties, including mental health issues, dermatological challenges and sexual health. Across the country, doctors who build strong social media followings are able to educate thousands of people in a fraction of the time it takes a physician in the office to counsel a few dozen patients.
In the past, physicians could expect to command attention through their credentials. Today, in a world shaped by digital platforms, diverse voices and shifting values, the most desired channels, topics and communication styles prove more effective for Gen Z and Millennials.
Just as politicians must adjust strategies to win elections and generals need to revise tactics to win wars, doctors will have to evolve their approach if they seek to achieve the best clinical outcomes.
