6 Takeaways From The Salesforce 2016 Connected Patient Report
Increasingly tech savvy healthcare consumers are embracing wearable devices and telemedicine, and want to interact with their physicians using modern technology. Still, a new survey, commissioned by Salesforce, finds most interact and communicate with their providers through traditional channels—in person and by phone.
The survey of 1,700 insured adults was conducted online by Harris Poll on behalf of Salesforce from June 8-10, 2016.
The complete report can be downloaded here, but we’ve distilled 6 key results that point to a growing consumer appetite for wearables and modern, multi-channel communication with clinicians:
- Sixty-two percent of health-insured patients agree that they would be open to virtual care treatments as an alternative to in-office doctor visits, such as video conference calls for non-urgent matters.
- Fifty-nine percent of all health-insured patients -- and 70% of Millennials (ages 18-34) -- would choose a primary care physician who offers a patient mobile app (allowing patients to make appointments, see bills, view health data, etc.) over one that does not.
- Seventy-eight percent of health-insured patients who own wearables want their doctors to have access to health data from these devices so providers can have more up-to-date views of their health (44%), use health data trends to be able to diagnose conditions before they become serious or terminal (39%), and give more personalized care (33%).
- Sixty-seven percent of Millennials would be very or somewhat likely to use a wearable health tracking device given to them by their insurance companies in exchange for potentially better health insurance rates based on the data provided by the device.
- Ninety percent of fitness app owners say their want their app to integrate with healthcare and nutrition information from other apps.
- While nearly a third of respondents say they keep their health records at home in a physical storage location, nearly the same percentage say they have access to a self-service portal provided by a healthcare and/or insurance provider.
"Patients today are choosing their providers, in part, based on how well they use technology to communicate with them and manage their health," said Joshua Newman, M.D., Chief Medical Officer, GM, Salesforce Healthcare and Life Sciences. "Care providers who build deeper patient relationships through care-from-anywhere options, the use of wearables and better communications post-discharge, will be in a strong position to be successful today -- and into the future."
Last fall Salesforce released the Health Cloud, a cloud-based patient relationship management solution that enables providers to gain a complete view of the patient with integrated data from EMRs, wearables and more; make smarter care decisions, engage with patients across their caregiver networks; and manage patient data.
