The doctor-patient digital gap
While it’s not a secret that medical practices are behind the Internet curve, it can be astonishing just how far they lag – as indicated by a report this month in Information Week magazine.
Citing a survey of nearly 5,300 patients by Forrester Research, IW concluded that “communication between physicians and patients via the Internet is still struggling to gain traction.”
May we say in response: well, duh. The shortage of physician-patient communications outside the exam room is approaching shameful. Key findings of the Forrester survey:
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- Only 16 percent of patients have taken advantage of their doctors’ online forms for medical visits.
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- Among so-called “e-Visit users” – patients who go online to communicate with their doctors – 46 percent have a college degree or higher. Among non-users, 25 percent have a college degree, barely half the rate.
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- E-Visit users also have higher household incomes, averaging $88,000, while the average income for those not using the service is $70,000.
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- Nine out of 10 e-Visit users said they go online every month and, when they do, they are more prone to conduct a variety of health research.
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- Those who embrace the eVisit experience also show greater signs of healthcare consumerism.
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- A net effect of health care reform is that “the need for online conversations between doctors and patients will increase.”
Your practice: leader or follower?
We draw several conclusions of our own:
1. Barely one in six patients have used online forms – but isn’t this due to the rarity of medical practices that offer it? That’s probably about the percentage of practices that do offer this patient convenience.
If so, online forms make a terrific marketing differentiator for a practice – if it came down to choosing between two competing physicians or practices, wouldn’t you pick the one sparing you the hassle of arriving 30 minutes early for your first appointment so you can record your most personal health secrets on a clipboard in a crowded waiting room?
2. Patients who use online communications with their providers are wealthier, more educated, and are the most active regular Internet users and health consumers. These are certainly the most informed health care consumers with the best possible outcomes, the very kind that practices should be pursuing as new patients .
3. The most important conclusion: Online health care communications are no longer the future but are the present, and individual medical practices have the choice of either leading or following their competitors.
Leader or follower…which is your practice?
About Vanguard Communications
Since 1994, Vanguard Communications has provided specialty healthcare marketing with a strategy focused on patient education guaranteed to bring new patients to specialist physicians, physician assistants, nurses and therapists in private, university and hospital practices. Through its MedMarketLink program, Vanguard combines the disciplines of online and offline PR, strategic marketing and information technology for healthcare providers coast to coast.