Salesforce released its first “State of the Connected Patient” report, which surveyed more than 1,700 Americans who have health insurance and a primary care doctor to look at how patients are currently connecting with their providers, as well as their technology requests for the future.

The report has found that Americans on average see their doctor three times a year, have 2.5 doctors overseeing some aspect of their health care and are confident that their doctors are sharing their health records across the caregiver system (76% agree).

60% of millennials are interested in using telehealth options.However, the millennials (defined as currently aged 18-34) look at things differently. For one thing they have a limited or even non-existent relationship with their primary care doctor, as 40% reported saying their primary care doctor would not recognize them walking down the street. More importantly, millennials prefer to engage with their providers through modern technology, and this will pressure healthcare providers to embed more social, mobile and cloud technologies in their day-to-day interactions with patients.

60% of millennials are interested in using telehealth options; 71% would be interested in a doctor/provider giving them a mobile app on their smartphone/tablet to actively manage their well-being for preventative care, review health records, schedule appointments; and 63% would be interested in proactively providing their health data from WiFi/wearable devices to their doctor/provider.

So, while this is an exciting time for providers which have the opportunity to embrace modern technologies to appeal to millennials, it should also serve as a wake-up call that they need to strengthen relationships with their patients or risk losing them to more modern, competitive health systems…

Salesforce’s full “2015 State of the Connected Patient” report is available from here.