Exploring Divergent Healthcare Practices and Emerging Technologies: A Focus on DIY Fecal Microbiota Transplants

This project examines do-it-yourself (DIY) fecal microbiota transplants (FMT) through the lens of tactical technical communication and rhetoric of health and medicine. While research on microbiome-related interventions like FMT is nascent, patient communities are eager for additional treatment options, leading to the proliferation of online user-generated instructional artifacts for attempting DIY FMT without medical assistance or FDA approval. Simultaneously, generative AI is transforming the information ecologies in which patients engage with medical information and pursue health-related behaviors that align or diverge from approved practices. This project investigates these divergent healthcare practices enabled by user- and AI-generated content.