Increased patient empowerment the main benefit of digital health tools: Poll

Digital health tools have provided an opportunity to healthcare professionals to improve clinical outcomes and improve efficiency.

Verdict has conducted a poll to analyse the main benefits of digital health tools. The respondents were given five options to choose from, including increased patient empowerment, better disease management, convenience, less burden on healthcare professionals, improved access to affordable healthcare.

A majority 31% of the respondents voted that increased patient empowerment is the main benefit of digital health tools.

While 25% of the respondents opined better disease management, such as adherence and disease tracking, to be the main benefit, 20% voted for convenience such as remote monitoring and no waiting times.

Reduced burden on healthcare professionals was voted by 13% of the respondents, whereas 12% opined improved access to affordable care to be the main benefit.

The analysis is based on 166 responses received from the readers of Pharmaceutical Technology, a Verdict network site, between 02 February 2020 and 19 April 2021.

Benefits of digital health tools

Digital health tools are being widely utilised amid the COVID-19 pandemic for remote monitoring of patients, detecting early symptoms of infection and adhering to social distancing norms.

Technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine, learning (ML), smart wearables, and big data analytics can help in continuum of care and have the potential to improve medical diagnosis, while enabling self-management of care.

Kinsa Health, a health technology company, for example, uses smart thermometers to record body temperatures at home. It is an early warning system that can track the spread of the infection in real-time and predict future outbreaks.

Digital health tools can also help in expanding the reach of healthcare professionals for patients located in rural areas or under home care. They can provide equitable access to healthcare and reduce the financial burden on not only the healthcare systems, but also on the patients.