People living with chronic conditions want to be better informed, safer and more confident.

In the run up to the American Telehealth Association (ATA2020) Virtual Conference, the mSafety division carried out a survey to better understand the level of consumer interest in remote health monitoring technology for remote monitoring in healthcare.

The survey targeted over 2,000 people in the U.S. who are themselves living with or caring for someone else with a chronic condition. Almost 90 percent of them said they believed they would be able to manage their chronic conditions better with the help of a specialised remote health monitoring device. The top reasons they gave were that they would feel better informed, safer and more confident.

Managing chronic diseases is a struggle

Despite advances in technology, the study found that managing chronic conditions disease monitoring remains “stressful” and “difficult” for many. Overall 30 percent of sufferers have difficulty tracking vitals and other important measurements, and even more are stressed about keeping up with or misreporting their vitals.

Specialised devices needed

75 percent of those surveyed said they would be willing to wear a specialised remote health monitoring device if it was prescribed by their doctor. And over 50 percent of those surveyed would go so far as to consider switching doctors if they didn’t provide a specialised device.

Untapped potential

With only 20 percent of those surveyed having been prescribed a specialised wearable to monitor their condition, the need for more healthcare-specific devices is clear. Please note, new devices must be healthcare-specific, since only 28 percent would trust a consumer health wearable device to do the job.

“This study highlights that U.S. consumers are eager to adopt remote health monitoring devices.”

Fewer visits to the doctor

Visiting the doctor for routine tests and personal health data gathering can be time-consuming and expensive for patients with chronic conditions. If they could share health data remotely, almost 50 percent of survey respondents said they would go the doctor’s less often, and 54 percent said they would cut out three or more annual visits.

When you exclude the over 65s, approximately 60 percent said they would visit the doctor less if they could share personal health information remotely, which indicates that the U.S. population is likely to demand more remote health monitoring options in the future.

Avoidable emergencies

The survey also showed that many health emergencies could be avoided if people with chronic health conditions were equipped with remote monitoring devices. For example, we learnt that approximately one quarter of respondents had experienced a health emergency as a result of not continuously tracking their measurements or medications, and 45 percent said they regularly forget to take one of their prescription medications / treatments.

“This study highlights that U.S. consumers are eager to adopt remote health monitoring devices. Wearables like mSafety have the potential to reduce the need for costly, and complex acute interventions that don’t align with the proactive, personalised care models of the future.”, concludes Arnol Rios, Head of Network Communications Sales and Business Development in North America for Takeoff Point LLC – a Sony company.

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*The mSafety study was conducted by independent brand intelligence firm Survata, analysing data from 2,005 consumers between May 29 and June 2, 2020.