What Do Your Patients Want From Their Digital Health Care?

It’s a digital world out there and there’s no turning back. Smartphones, tablets, wearable, and apps link us to the news, entertainment, shopping, and our friends. They map our journeys, record our walking miles, help us meditate, and answer our questions about every subject we can think of.

They’re also making it possible for us to receive personalized health care on demand. And make no mistake, more of us than ever are demanding digital health care experience with a strong warning that we’ll go elsewhere if we aren’t getting what we need. Just look at these startling statistics.

General Apps

At a minimum they want apps that help them search for a doctor or specialist, access family health records, make or change an appointment, access test results, pay bills and fill prescriptions.

Virtual Visits

As they shop for convenient, affordable health care and as insurance companies begin to foot the bill, patients would love to avoid trips to the doctor’s office for non-emergent care. Some health systems are now using virtual visits for everything from e-prescribing to pre-surgical consults, chronic disease management check-ins, and more.

Wearables and portable tracking devices

Patients concerned with prevention would like to exchange health data from wearable devices with their physician in an effort to track their health status and progress, including tracking their blood pressure, weight, and blood glucose.

Customized Apps

Patients would also like apps from their provider that can:

  • track their medication

  • help with their mental health

  • support their rehabilitation with follow-up plans, rehab journals, and interactive physical therapy sessions

  • help them cope with conditions like heart disease, cancer, asthma, and diabetes