Physicians turning to digital tools to boost patient outcomes

Physicians turning to digital tools to boost patient outcomes

As U.S. healthcare providers reorient their practices to meet outcomes-based incentives, many are turning to digital tools to help meet those goals.

According to Manhattan Research’s “Taking the Pulse U.S. 2014” study, more than a third of physicians said that they had been evaluated or rewarded based on metrics measuring cost of treatment, patient outcomes or referrals over the past year. At the same time, two in five physicians agreed that using modern technologies to communicate with patients will improve patient outcomes, and as many said that they have increased their use of digital tools to communicate with patients over the past year.

Two in five physicians agreed that using digital tools to communicate with patients will improve patient outcomes.“As we move to an outcomes-based model of healthcare provision in the U.S., remote monitoring and telehealth are going to drive an extension of the point of care,” said Director of Physician Research James Avallone. “We’re seeing physician attitudes really align with policy.”

Forty-seven percent of physician smartphone owners had shown patients images or videos on their devices, and more than a third of physicians had recommended that patients use health apps in the past year.

More than a third of physicians had recommended that patients use health apps in the past year.When it comes to telemedicine and remote care, its use is small but growing with nearly one quarter of physicians reporting that they or their teams have communicated with patients through a patient portal over the past year while more than one in five had done so using secure messaging platforms. Moreover, more than one in five monitored patients remotely, and those physicians monitored an average 22 patients per month.