Survey: 75% of consumers want digital healthcare services

The belief that consumers do not want to use digital healthcare services is a myth, as more than 75 percent indicated would like to use such services given they are high quality and meet their needs, according to analysts from global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company.

However, adoption is slow because existing services do not meet consumer needs or because they are of poor quality.

“[W]e believe the time has come for healthcare systems, payers and providers to go ‘all in’ on their digital strategies,” wrote McKinsey analysts Stefan Biesdorf and Florian Niedermann in a blog post.

Consumers who want access to high quality digital healthcare services are not just from the younger generations, but people of all ages. Patients over 50 want digital healthcare services nearly as much as their younger counterparts. In other parts of the world—older generations are embracing such technologies. In Germany and the United Kingdom, more than 70 percent of all older patients want to use digital healthcare services, according to the blog.

The analysts also concluded that mobile health is not the only driver of digital healthcare, as demand for it is not universal. Also, the analysts wrote that instead of wanting fancy innovative apps, consumers put the most value on strong core features such as efficiency, better access to information, integration with other channels and availability of a real person if the digital serve does not give them what they need.

Read the blog here.