Patients have little to no interest in integrating mHealth data into medical health records, according to a Forbes report on a poll of care providers.
Cloud-based electronic health record provider Practice Fusion posed the following survey inquiry to 20,000 of its 112,000 medical professional user base: Have your patients asked you about incorporating their health data from either their wearable fitness trackers (like Fitbit or Jawbone UP) or from their health apps (like Apple's HealthKit) into their health records?
Out of the 353 doctors who responded, 85 percent said "no."
"The patient-led, smartphone-based healthcare revolution is not knocking at the door of practices across America--at least not according to those doctors," according to the article. Even Practice Fusion's Chief Executive Ryan Howard hasn't integrated his personal healthcare records with Apple's HealthKit.
"The data [from apps] is of little value to start with," Howard tells Forbes.
The poll comes months after Apple's extremely hyped June launch of the HealthKit platform, which some industry observers believe will be the game-changer in driving consumer interest and use of mHealth technology forward.
Big obstacles remain in mHealth tech and data sharing, from security issues to regulatory oversight. Apple has spent time this year trying to hurdle those challenges in relation to HealthKit, including talking with federal regulators regarding data sharing.
And patients aren't the only ones reticent about embracing mHealth tools. Physicians are worried about accuracy of the data being collected, and are also concerned about data sharing practices, privacy issues and technology requirements, FierceMobileHealthcare previously reported.
For more information:
- read the Forbes article
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