By Andrew Berg
Friday, October 9, 2009
Harris yesterday announced the results of a poll, conducted in partnership with CTIA, that gauges the attitudes of consumers and physicians toward mobile healthcare services such as smartphones, wearable bio-sensors and chronic disease monitoring devices.
The survey included questions from the Patient Activation Measure (PAM), a tool used to assess individuals' knowledge, skills and confidence in playing a role in their own health and healthcare, as well as a sister measure that assesses physician support of patient activation. The PAM segments consumers into one of four progressively higher "activation levels" based on their answers – shedding light on how likely they will engage with mobile devices and how to develop more effective communications and support programs.
Results show that almost eight in 10 Americans (78 percent) expressed some level of interest. Both groups agreed that mobile health would make medical care easier to obtain and may reduce the number of office visits.
Mobile healthcare was defined as mobile solutions that would allow patients to communicate directly with their physician or allow their physician to monitor, diagnose conditions and administer medications remotely.
The poll found that 19 percent of the general population and 22 percent of the chronically ill would upgrade their existing wireless plans to include mobile healthcare services. Respondents saw the most value in mobile health services for those patients with chronic illnesses, retired people on Medicare and for those in rural areas.
According to the poll, the medical establishment is getting behind mobile health care, finding that eight in 10 doctors and nine in 10 specialists support investment in mobile health services.
More than 3,473 consumers and doctors responded to the survey, which was administered to a random sample of the U.S. population and a targeted physician sample from the Harris Poll Online.