Survey: Patients Would Use Wearables to Reduce Doc Visits

Many patients would utilize a wearable health monitoring device if it meant it could reduce the number of times they had to physically visit a doctor or hospital, according to a recent survey from VivaLNK, a provider of connected healthcare solutions.

Of 100 survey participants over 40 years old, 64 percent said they would utilize a wearable health monitoring device if it meant it could reduce the number of times they had to physically visit a doctor or hospital.

Results also showed just over half (55 percent) of respondents said they visit a physician or specialist more than once per year; 27 percent visit just once per year; and 16 percent only make an appointment when an issue arises.

The survey further determined that there are three key factors contributing to participants' desire to reduce physical appointments for patients: costs of the appointment, distance, and disliking healthcare facilities. Overall, though, the survey found interest in wearable health devices for remote patient monitoring (RPM) to be high, regardless of if it reduced visits: more than 55 percent of respondents said they would use a wearable health monitoring device at home.

Wearables, including health trackers and remote patient monitoring devices, are set to become “must-haves” in the delivery of healthcare, with an annual spend on these devices reaching an estimated $20 billion by 2023, according to research released earlier this year from Juniper Research.

The research found that adoption of healthcare wearables will be driven by improvements in remote patient monitoring technology, in addition to increased adoption by medical institutions. Juniper forecasts that 5 million individuals will be remotely monitored by healthcare providers by 2023.

"Remote patient monitoring and the wearable devices that make it possible are not new concepts, but there's more progress that can be made by understanding patient motivations. This survey highlights what really fuels and drives consumer behavior from a healthcare perspective. Patients have always disliked visiting the doctor's office, and now there's a way to mitigate that. While the appointment can't always be avoided, RPM is the key to reducing the time, energy and money it takes to physically visit  a doctor's office," said Jiang Li, CEO of VivaLNK.