Millennials clamor for digital health, but physician-patient interactions remain analog

Need more evidence that healthcare is behind the times when it comes to embracing technology? A new survey of consumers suggests that fewer than 10 percent of insured Americans turn to digital tools when making physician appointments.

Also suggesting that healthcare needs to change is the finding that 40 percent of those surveyed do not communicate at all with their doctors to manage preventive care, according to Salesforce, maker of customer-relationship management software. Salesforce commissioned Harris Interactive to query more than 1,700 adults, all of whom had health insurance as well as a primary care physician, on the “State of the Connected Patient.”

Many transactions still wait until the patient is physically in the doctor’s office or clinic. According to Salesforce, 40 percent of the survey pool review health data, receive test results and pay medical bills in person.

Just 28 percent of insured patients keep track of their own health information at home—and most of those do so with paper methods. A whopping 76 percent expressed confidence that their physicians share data with their other care providers, despite evidence elsewhere that health information exchange is lagging nationwide.

“This data shows that patients and doctors are still using tried-and-true ways of communicating, like phone, mail and in-person visits. We are really at the starting line of connected health," said Todd Pierce, Salesforce’s senior vice president for healthcare.

Modernization cannot happen fast enough for the next generation of adult patients, namely millennials, or those now between the ages of 18 and 34. Of this group, 71 percent would like their physicians to offer a mobile app to make appointments, manage their health and view health records. Nearly as many, 63 percent, would be interested in wearable and wireless health monitors, while 60 percent of millennials said they would like the option of video visits or other telehealth alternatives to traditional doctor’s appointments.

“While this is an exciting time for providers, as they have the opportunity to match an eager populace with new technology tools, it should also serve as a wake-up call that they need to strengthen relationships with their patients or risk losing them to more modern, competitive health systems,” Pierce wrote on the Salesforce blog.

Pierce also said that these survey results would “pressure healthcare providers to embed more social, mobile and cloud technologies in their day-to-day interactions with patients.”