45% Of Consumers Want mHealth To Monitor ‘Every Aspect' Of Health

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

Consumers want technology to monitor every aspect of their life; will this help or hurt providers’ efforts?

Your patients might track their daily steps, or even calories and sleep patterns, but what if they tracked every aspect of their health? Would it aid in creating thorough records or would it clog EHRs with useless data?

A new survey from Havas Worldwide shows that nearly half, 45 percent, of U.S. consumers favor digital devices that monitor “every aspect” of one's physical health. Globally, that number rises to seven in 10 indicating growing acceptance for such wearables and apps. Nearly half of them are already using at least one device.

“As technology changes every aspect of our lives, it's given people around the world a greater awareness of their own well-being, and a new arsenal of tools to track and improve their health,” said Andrew Benett, Global CEO of Havas Worldwide and Havas Creative Group in a press release.

“At the same time, technology has opened a rich opportunity for brands in the health, beauty and fitness spaces to truly become partners to consumers on their journey to wellness,” Benett added. “There is enormous potential for those brands able to help consumers make smart decisions about caring for and maximizing the value of their most important asset: themselves.”

MobiHealth News explains privacy still remains a serious concern. More than four in 10 global respondents said they are concerned their privacy when using health monitoring devices.

Health IT Outcomes reported earlier this year providers were wary of wearable device data.  “I get information from watching people's body language, tics, and tone of voice,” said Paul Abramson, a primary care doctor and engineer. “Subtleties you just can't get from a Fitbit or some kind of health app.” He noted that the amount of data his patients’ devices were producing as overwhelming and little of it was of use.