Survey finds growing interest among patients, clinicians for apps
Almost half (46 percent) of healthcare professionals plan to incorporate smartphone apps into their practices within the next five years, according to a survey from the Research Now Group.
After polling 1,000 mobile health app users and 500 healthcare professionals, the researchers found that 19 percent do not expect to start using apps at their practices within the next five years; and 16 percent are using health apps in their practices now.
The survey found that 86 percent of healthcare professionals said that apps would help increase their understanding of patients' conditions and 72 percent said patients who use apps would likely take greater responsibility for their health;
Half said apps would make treatment more efficient and 46 percent said apps would improve provider-patient relationships.
Thirty-seven percent of healthcare professionals said the apps would improve patients' quality of life, compared with 96 percent of patients who said the apps would do so.
Editor
Editor Beth earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and master’s in health communication. She has worked in hospital, academic and publishing settings over the past 20 years. Beth joined TriMed in 2005, as editor of CMIO and Clinical Innovation + Technology. When not covering all things related to health IT, she spends time with her husband and three children.