SUMMARY: Once again, the “hype” may be bigger than the reality around telehealth. First, people aren’t always completely honest with their doctors. A recent study published in the journal JAMA Network Open found that 60 to 80 percent of patients have been less than fully forthright with their doctors at some point which can be worse with telehealth. According to a survey, close to 60% of physicians have lingering reservations about the quality of care they can provide remotely.
QUICK READ: About 74% of patients in the U.S. would use telehealth services and 74% of patients are comfortable with communicating with their doctors using technology instead of seeing them in person. As social distancing becomes reality will patients embrace telehealth?
KEY TAKEAWAY: Hidden in all the news about Mhealth and new electronic health records is the fact that patients are slowly taking control of THEIR health care . If this trend continues, and it will, I expect HCP’s, insurers and pharma to start paying the price for overcomplicating health care.
KEY TAKEAWAY: IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science,found a significant increase in the proportion of mobile health apps that focus on health conditions and patient care, as opposed to those for general wellness. Health condition management apps now account for 40% of all health-related apps, up from 27% in 2015 . The biggest barriers to mHealth adoption are user experience and ensuring that HCP’s accept the data.
KEY TAKEAWAY: For 2017 the mHealth market is forecast to be valued at around 25.39 billion U.S. dollars. The number ofmHealth apps downloaded worldwide was expected to reach a high in 2016, with an estimated 3.2 billion downloads, almost double the number of downloads in 2013.
KEY TAKEAWAY: Studies indicate people with chronic conditions want to use mHealth devices at home for care management, but the devices and apps they’re trying are too complex or confusing. More than 100,000 (health) applications are now available in the leading app stores, and the assortment is constantly growing,” says a BAEK study that was discussed at the congress. But only a fraction of the programs are certified as medical products.Mobile health apps for smartphones and tablet computers are especially popular with young people. And demand is rising. There’s a caveat, though.
KEY TAKEAWAY: Mobile health apps will never be relevant until the medical community believes that the data they collect is accurate, that patients use them the right way and that they provide improved patient outcomes.
KEY TAKEAWAY: There is a HUGE disconnect between what people say they would do and what they would actually do when it comes to mobile health. Sure, they say that would wear a device to track things like blood pressure but how are they going to use the data and is the data really accurate.