Portland, ME – A recent Harris Poll survey revealed a majority of the over 4,100 respondents prefer accessing a live doctor remotely. 65 percent of respondents are interested in seeing their doctor via video visit – that number rose to 74 percent with respondents that have children. And 20 percent said they would switch to another doctor that offered telehealth.
Consumers are clearly interested in more convenient access to healthcare – and increasingly, they are even willing to switch providers to get internet video service, American Well Chief Marketing Officer Mary Modahl said in a statement. Not only that, but consumers are willing to try telehealth for many needs – from chronic conditions to post-discharge follow up.
Here are a couple additional statistics that caught our eye from the poll:
- 69 percent stated video was best for diagnosis versus 26 percent would rather have a phone call and 5 percent through email
- 67 percent delayed care because of easy of access, availability and/or high costs
- 60 percent prefer follow up visits via video
- 52 percent stated hospital follow up visits and check in’s via video
You can read all the results of the 2017 telehealth index research here.
Why This Matters:
This trend is one we’ve been keeping our eye for a while and is also featured in our 2017 Trend Reports called ‘Anywhere Care’.
We are witnessing major networks experiencing over 52% of their 110 million annual interaction’s between physicians and patients happening remotely and technology is keeping up by giving physicians more access to devices that support telehealth.
And brands are catching on too. For example, the American Lung Association teamed up with Pfizer to give anyone attempting to quit smoking immediate access to a physician via telemedicine. Their website, QuittersCircle.com, includes detailed information about how telemedicine can help people quit and also offers direct links to two top telemedicine providers: American Well (sponsors of the survey results above) and Doctor On Demand.
As this trend continues to gain strength, we look forward to bring more experiences to the surface and watching how it grows to be a more viable option for patients and physicians.
