Ready For Wearables? Because Your Patients Are
By Katie Wike, contributing writer
Accenture survey finds most people are interested in using wearable technology - a key to remote patient monitoring
The Accenture Digital Consumer Tech Survey 2014 found “more than half of consumers … are interested in buying wearable technologies such as fitness monitors for tracking physical activity and managing their personal health.” This should excite providers, since biosensors and wearable technology were named as some of the most revolutionary technologies in health and fitness. In fact, a great deal of remote patient monitoring now relies on devices like the FitBit to track patient progress.
“In the past year wearable technologies have emerged as the next big consumer electronics market category, particularly for health and wellness,” said Mattias Lewren, global managing director of Accenture’s Electronics and High-Tech industry group. “To capitalize on this growth opportunity, consumer electronics companies should consider investing in wearable product innovation and industrial design, and building ecosystems that connect wearables to the broader array of interactive digital networks. Every consumer is a digital consumer, and the keen interest in wearable technology provides further evidence of that.”
Survey results further indicate consumers primarily indicated interest in devices like smartwatches and wearable smart glasses - Google Glass - despite these devices not being widely available commercially. In addition, there was great interest in phablets, an emerging category of mobile devices that combine smartphone and tablet PC functions.
“More than half of consumers … who plan to buy a traditional smartphone in the next year indicated they would prefer a phablet. And while interest in phablets was significant, the surveyed also revealed that consumers continue to show strong interest in buying traditional smartphones and tablet PCs. During the next year, for instance, 52 percent plan to purchase a smartphone and 40 percent a tablet PC,” reports Accenture.
This too is good news for providers, as one ACO has seen a significant reduction in readmissions since providing patients with tablets. In a pilot study of the program, a group of Medicare patients who used tablets had a readmission rate of just 8 percent, while the control group’s readmission rate was 28 percent.
View the survey results HERE
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