I normally don’t bother reading (consciously, at least) the comments section of news articles because they’re often full of spam or disgruntled readers. But, one particular comment posted for a Wall Street Journal article caught my eye. The article was discussing the increased use of mobile apps in clinical practice.
“…and feed information back to their doctors between visits, often in real time.”
Yeah right, and the doctors are going to be paying attention. Bull! The reality is that with the pressures to see more patients, whose visits are reimbursed at much lower rates by insurance and Medicare, nowadays doctors have very little time for you even when you are in front of them.
With data streaming over their devices from various patients, odds are they are going to ignore most of it. Every time they focus on you they have to review your record to recall who you are and what ails you. That’s not about to happen for so many incoming bits of data from so many different patients.
The reader wrote what I believe many people have on their mind. With physicians under extreme pressure to see so many patients each day, do they really have the time and resources necessary to make the most of the new digital health applications used in clinical practice?
There’s no question that mobile health apps can be a sure-fire way to keep patients engaged, but when it comes to physicians, it seems like the best digital solution is one that would give them what they need most: time.
