Technology in the Hands of the Health Consumer
What works and what doesn’t work
Technology now has an undeniable foothold in our daily lives. We can now read a 1,000-page novel on a 2-inch-wide smartphone and have robots perform surgery on us. Technology has changed the way we consume content (think Netflix), how we communicate with others (think WhatsApp, Twitter), and how we think about purchasing products and availing services (think Amazon, Airbnb). Technology has undoubtedly also transformed the healthcare industry, particularly after the start of the internet revolution.
How is tech used by the health consumer
The internet revolution was instrumental in getting medical information directly to the hands of the people. Search engines like Google and health information websites like WebMD decoded complex medical information into easily digestible paragraphs and bullet points. The doctor was no longer the sole source of clinical information. Anyone could look up a plethora of diseases, from the common cold to Legionnaires’ disease, from the comfort of their homes (or the internet cafe). And thus, the health consumer was born. Now, more than 1 billion health-related searches happen on Google every single day.
The past two decades have witnessed radical advancements in communication tools and broadband services. And with the introduction of smartphones, people now have the power of a computer in the palm of their hands and access to unimaginable amounts of information about the most obscure topics. As a result, the health consumer evolved into an active seeker of health information and healthcare services.
Technology has also made it much easier for the health consumer to keep tabs on their health and thus, has cemented an important role in preventive and curative medicine. The market is now saturated with mobile applications (apps) that help the health consumer track their steps, medication adherence, dietary habits, and weight loss goals among other things. Smartphone-enabled wearable devices are also extensively used for tracking fitness goals and monitoring health. Wearable devices are also utilized for disease management; they help monitor a range of clinical parameters such as ECG recordings, blood sugar levels, and respiratory rates.
The telecommunication boom also paved the way for a dramatic shift in the mode of healthcare delivery. With the advent of telemedicine, health consumers can now consult their doctors virtually (by secure video feeds), discuss medical reports with them (via video, phone calls, or text), and receive prescriptions from their homes. Burdensome travel and waiting times are no longer issues.
What works with tech in the hands of the health consumer…
With technology, patients are no longer merely passive recipients of information from their doctors. They have evolved into health consumers — they want to be a part of the healthcare decision-making process, engage more in their treatment plans, and evaluate which healthcare services (like which mobile app or wearable device) would work best in their disease management journeys. This has led to a more patient-centered model, or rather, health consumer-centered model of healthcare delivery.
Now, doctors and healthcare facilities are more accountable to the patients who avail their services. One bad review by a health consumer on social media can inflict a lot of damage. Physician-rating websites, platforms on which health consumers can rate the quality of their healthcare experiences, also nudge doctors and healthcare providers to up their games to ensure continued patient visits. One study found that if a doctor received a few reviews that were emotional in nature, a potential health consumer had less favourable attitudes towards that doctor. Thus, satisfaction has become an important quality marker in the healthcare industry, and technology in the hands of the health consumer helped drive this.
Tech tools have also made caregivers health consumers. Caregivers are now able to play a more active role in care recipients’ treatment journeys by remotely monitoring clinical parameters, easily booking medical appointments, refilling medicines, and being alerted of any changes in health status.
Telemedicine is also associated with various benefits for the health consumer. The busy health consumer who lives far away from the bustling city does not need to worry about travelling long distances to access specialized care. Health consumers can now interact with specialists live over video conference, and even electronically transmit their data for later assessment.
Telemedicine became more vital than ever during the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic severely disrupted health services, especially for chronic diseases and mental health. The World Health Organization (WHO) found that 53% of the countries they surveyed reported disrupted services for hypertension treatment, and 93% reported disrupted mental health services. And this is where a phone, laptop, or desktop came in handy. Health consumers leveraged these telecommunication tools to avail much-needed healthcare services during the pandemic. In the US, Mayo Clinic’s digital health services saw a whopping 10,880% rise in video medical consultations.
Tech-driven tools have also gained traction in chronic disease management. For patients with chronic diseases, their healthcare journeys happen largely outside the walls of hospitals and clinics. Hence, wearable devices and health monitoring apps have aided in better self-management. For example, research has shown that diabetes apps helped patients with type 2 diabetes better manage their diet, physical activity levels, and blood glucose levels.
…and what doesn’t work
With a saturation of health information, the health consumer tends to overlook the credibility of the information they seek or receive. Magic foods, miracle concoctions, fad diets — a plethora of online sources have claimed how these can help with achieving weight loss goals in record time and cure diseases. For example, information about apricot seeds as a cure for cancer can be found online. But there is no scientific evidence backing this recommendation, and apricot seeds are even linked with cyanide poisoning. Nowadays, with the touch of a button, potentially dangerous misinformation can spread like wildfire, whether in family WhatsApp groups or to a large following base on Instagram.
Even reputed health information sites are not immune to the grasps of health consumer-mediated misinformation spread. As of December 2020, WebMD had a page called “User Reviews & Ratings — APRICOT KERNEL” with unsubstantiated testimonials about the effectiveness of apricot kernels as a cancer treatment. According to this page, apricot kernels have an effectiveness rating against cancer of 4.63 out of 5.
Another prime example of how technology has fuelled misinformation spread by the health consumer is the claim that the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine causes autism. The research was published in 1998 in a well-known scientific journal, but was soon retracted. The lead researcher behind the study was even barred from practicing medicine. But this did not stop the “anti-vaccine” movement from gaining momentum in the next two decades.
Social media and the associated ease of sharing information enabled a shift in the anti-vaccine rhetoric. Now, all vaccines cause autism, not just the MMR vaccine. One study found that out of 800 vaccine-related posts on Pinterest, about 74% of them echoed anti-vaccine sentiments. There are several groups and pages on Facebook dedicated to anti-vaccine propaganda, most of them run by individuals. This is an example of how tech in the hands of the health consumer can incur detrimental public health costs. Due to low vaccination rates, the WHO declared that four countries in Europe (Albania, the Czech Republic, Greece, and the UK) no longer had their measles eradication statuses.
Easy access to health and wellness indicators can also exacerbate paranoia and lead to hypervigilance. For example, the Apple watch is FDA-cleared for detecting abnormal heart rhythms. But false positive results have led to unnecessary healthcare utilization as worried health consumers sought a second opinion from a doctor. This underscores the possible socioeconomic bias linked with the use of tech tools like wearable devices — only the more well-off health consumer is able to afford such expensive tech tools. So, there’s an added fear that the increase in health utilization may also have a socioeconomic bias, with the well-off and healthy health consumer seeking more care. This may divert resources away from the more ill and poorer populations. Hence, first-hand monitoring of clinical parameters by the health consumer can result in such unintended consequences.
So what next for the partnership between tech and the health consumer?
Technology has enabled health consumers to take a more active role in the healthcare decision-making process, both as patients and caregivers. But technology in the hands of the health consumer can also be a double-edged sword, as seen with the rapid spread of misinformation. One thing is for sure — we are now in the era of the technologically inclined health consumer, and there’s no turning back. Now, it’s all about maximizing the good and mitigating the bad when it comes to tech in the hands of the health consumer.
Schenelle Dlima is a Scientific Content Writer at Saathealth, an AI powered, chronic care digital health platform.
