FROM REDUCING PATIENT READMISSIONS to improving
overall well-being, the potential of healthcare apps is just
beginning to be understood. What is far clearer is that patients
want easy, mobile access to hea lth information. The Pew
Internet Project reports, for example, that 72 percent of
people who use the internet have searched online for health
information, and over half of smartphone users have used
their phones to do so. Moreover, apps appear to be altering
care among patients who use them.
"Mobile apps for smartphones are changing the way doctors
and their patients approach medicine and hea lth issues,"
Vincent DeRobertis, Senior Vice President of Global Healthcare
at data collection company Research Now, said in a news
release about a sur vey the compa ny conducted suggest-
ing providers and patients value health apps. "Patients are
gathering data about their condition or treatment, ultimately
improving their health or perhaps reducing visits to a physician.
Apps are improving healthcare professionals' knowledge of
their patients, while patients feel a lift in their quality of life.
Obviously, there is a huge opportunity for the use of these apps."
Yet, the Accenture survey of mobile app use suggests that,
on the whole, the healthcare industry has failed to leverage
this technology e ectively.
Why Patients Rarely Use Hospital Apps
MISSED CONNECTION:
BY VALERIE LAUER
JUST 66 PERCENT OF
THE NATION'S L ARGEST
HOSPITAL S HAVE MOBILE
APPS FOR PATIENTS
TO USE, AND OF THOSE
THAT FURNISH APP S,
ONLY 2 PERCENT
OF THEIR PATIENT
POPUL ATIONS UTILIZE
THEM, ACCORDING TO
RECENT RESE ARCH
BY CONSULTING FIRM
ACCENTURE. THAT'S
A COSTLY GAP THAT
E XPERTS SAY HOSPITAL S
CAN CLOSE.
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