Manhattan Research surveyed over 7,000 doctors from 17 countries to understand their technology behaviors, information seeking preferences and ways they research pharma products to identify opportunities for physician digital health engagement. The Global Physician Digital Engagement Opportunity Map shown below identifies the top two pharma engagement opportunities by country.
As U.S. healthcare providers reorient their practices to meet outcomes-based incentives, many are looking to patient-facing digital tools to help them meet those goals, according to data from 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 digital technology 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.
Key findings on physician digital behavior from Taking the Pulse® U.S. 2014 include:
- Physicians are leveraging digital tools with patients: Forty-seven percent of 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.
- Telemedicine and remote care use is small but growing: While video consults are still relatively rare, nearly one quarter of physicians report that they or their teams have communicated with patients through a patient portal over the past year, and more than one in five had done so using secure messaging platforms. More than one in five monitored patients remotely, and those physicians monitored an average 22 patients per month.
