Smart phones like the iPhone and the Droid have opened so many new doors that there’s always the desire to find that next thing a smart phone can do.
A recent survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Health Research Institute revealed that many Americans would use their smart phone to monitor their personal health. How many business executives on the go would use this to keep an eye on their health?
DETAILS OF THE SURVEY
PricewaterhouseCoopers’ research was comprised of about 2,000 consumers and another 1,000 physicians about their own use and preferences for mobile health services and devices.
According to the survey, 31 percent of consumers said they’d be open to having an application built into their phone to be able to track their personal health.
Forty percent of consumers said they would be willing to pay for a device and a subscription fee for a mobile phone application that would send text and e-mail reminders to take medications, get prescription refills or access medical records.
Another forty percent of consumers said they would be willing to pay for a monitoring device that would send data to their doctor with information such as heart rate, blood pressure, blood sugar and weight automatically.
“Remote and mobile technology is making it possible to move healthcare delivery outside the traditional settings of physician offices and hospitals to wherever patients are. It’s bringing back the concept of doctors making house calls,” said Daniel Garrett, leader of PricewaterhouseCoopers.
TECHNOLOGY IS NOT WITHOUT ITS OWN FLU BUGS
There are some issues with mobile health applications.
Physicians have faced some challenges at their practices when they need the information. About one-third of physicians surveyed said they made decisions on incomplete information for about 70 percent of the patients they see.
Some physicians actually prefer to interact with their patients, and mobile health applications take that away. They may not have time to personally meet with patients as often as they would like.
One of the largest roadblocks to the inclusion of mobile health is the fact that in-person consultation is the main basis of healthcare reimbursement, but some health plans are beginning to pay for remote monitoring devices to help reduce readmission costs. Some physicians are getting limited reimbursement for phone consultations, email consults, tele-health and texting.
Of course, the business itself is very lucrative. According to the survey, the annual consumer market for mobile monitoring devices can range anywhere from $7 billion to about $43 billion based on how much people are willing to pay.
Mobile health will probably need much tweaking before it can be widely accepted and used, but for people with conditions such as diabetes, there’s no denying how useful this could be.
