Dive Brief:
- A poll by The Economist found that half of the 144 executives questioned believe mobile health technologies will become instrumental to patient engagement within the next five years—putting power into the hands of patients and reducing burdens on the healthcare system.
- "The poll of 144 healthcare executives revealed optimism about the role of mobile technologies in patient engagement, with 63% of respondents believing that greater access to health information will allow patients to make better decisions and improve their outcomes," reports EHR Intelligence. "More than a third believe that smartphones, tablets, and home monitoring technology will help to cut costs and relieve the burden on providers, while 79% believe that these devices and apps are providing important educational information to the public."
- At the same time, however, the report found that few organizations have identified a strategy to profit from mHealth, and that nearly 20% of the participants saw no potential to do so.
Dive Insight:
The report notes that unless value-based reimbursement becomes predominant, the fee-for-service payment model will provide a barrier to mHealth adoption because there is no business in keeping patients out of hospitals.
However, poll participants appear to see a future for mHealth in five years despite this and other obstacles, with half taking the position that mHealth will "mature past its revenue obstacles to cut costs and boost patient contact with the healthcare continuum in a meaningful way." These participants see potential for empowered patients to contribute to the efficiency of the healthcare delivery system, and to play an active role in their own outcomes and disease management.