With GP appointments increasingly hard to get, digital consultations are being hailed as a way to ease the pressure on the NHS. But would people feel comfortable talking about their medical problems through a screen? Canvas8 spoke to 20 Britons to discover how they’d prefer to reach their doctor.

Over a fifth of Britons have used search engines to diagnose a medical condition, whether that’s because they can’t get a GP’s appointment or due to ‘cyber-chondria’. Aiming to ease anxieties and provide fast, accurate advice is Ada, an AI-assisted app that gives users more control over their health.

The number of people Googling symptoms and diagnosing themselves has reached worrying proportions, with 20% of Brits now turning to the web rather than visiting a GP. Be Your Own Doctor is a new programme from Channel 4 that wants to help viewers navigate this potentially confusing world.

Health hackers are using genetic testing to better understand their biology, in the hopes of using smart drugs to fill the gaps and weak spots left by nature. In the pursuit of self-optimisation, people are creatively layering scientific advances to reach peak human.