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81 pct UK healthcare professionals believe smartphone apps helpful: survey

Xinhua, April 21, 2015 Adjust font size:

Some 81 percent of healthcare professionals in Britain believed that mobile health apps will increase their knowledge of patients' conditions, according to a survey released Monday by Research Now, an analytics company.

In order to carry out the survey, Research Now said they spoke to 500 healthcare professionals and 1,000 health app users in the UK.

The findings showed that, among the professionals, 65 percent believed health apps will encourage patients to take more responsibility for their health, while 45 percent thought they will increase the efficiency of patient treatment.

Meanwhile, the survey found that 93 percent of users thought that health apps help to improve their quality of life, and 78 percent said the government should increase its investment in developing relevant smartphone technology.

Although most professionals and users thought that health apps are important technology, people have rarely used them for health monitoring so far.

Simon Beedell, Division Director, EMEA Healthcare at Research Now, said only 10 percent of healthcare professionals were using mobile health apps and only 29 percent of health app users used them to monitor their health conditions. "But there is a tremendous opportunity for these to transform medical care. Technology is available to allow patients with heart disease to send information about their heart rate straight to their doctors."

Britain's most recent NHS (National Health System) Five Year Plan, released in 2014, sets out that technology will play a vital role in helping contribute to efficiency savings needed to sustain the NHS. Endit