Your patients with chronic disease are using digital and mobile tools to monitor their health. As their pharmacist, it’s important for you to understand the tools they’re using—and how they’re using them.
A recent study from Klick Health and the Digital Health Coalition examined how patients with chronic disease are influenced by and interact with digital health tools.
Here are five insights based on the survey’s findings you can use to help patients with chronic disease best use the digital and mobile health tools available.
1. Data is key
Nearly one in five of the chronically ill patients surveyed reported using mobile digital tools for health-related activities. Respondents also expressed strong interest in data-driven patient-physician interaction, and 78 percent of respondents said they’re open to sharing their health data with their health care team.
Tip: Show patients with chronic disease how they can track their own data, both digitally and manually. For example, take the time to explain which diabetic meters allow data tracking and exporting to patients with diabetes, and encourage these patients to share that data with their entire health care team.
2. Mobile has a variety of uses
Patients with chronic illnesses don’t just use mobile and digital tools for low-level health tasks such as tracking a daily calorie or step count, but also for connecting with their health care team and for medication management. According to the survey, 75 percent of respondents want to use apps to connect with their doctors, and two out of three respondents want an app to remind them to take their medication, which could help improve medication adherence.
Tip: When helping patients with chronic disease select an app, first identify what they want to use it for. Are they interested in tracking blood sugar, or do they need an app that will give them motivation for exercising? Once you define the use, it’ll be easier to recommend an appropriate app.
3. Digital health tools are popular
Patients with chronic disease are more likely to use online health portals, such as WebMD, than healthy patients. Forty-three percent of patients with chronic disease reported using online health platforms compared to 20 percent of the general population.
Tip: When patients with chronic disease come into your pharmacy searching for an over-the-counter (OTC) remedy to an issue they’ve self-diagnosed, encourage them to talk to their doctor before self-medicating. Also, be sure you check and make sure any OTC medication doesn’t interfere with ongoing treatment of their chronic condition.
4. Mobile use is related to health perception
Increased mobile use correlates with patients’ having better perceptions of the state of their health. Among the 18 percent of survey respondents who identified themselves as daily or weekly users of digital health tools (the most frequent digital-use category), 70 percent defined the state of their health as good, very good or excellent.
Tip: Consider encouraging patients with chronic disease who perceive their health as poor to use a mobile health tool to improve their perception and attitude about their health. Tracking their health with a digital tool can help patients cultivate a positive perception about their health, their medication regimens and encourage them to stay adherent.
5. Digital health use correlates with emergency room visits
More digital health engagement doesn’t necessarily lead to healthier patients.
Forty-three percent of patients who suffer from a chronic illness, and who regularly use digital tools for health, visited the emergency room in the last six months. This is more than double the rate of emergency room visits of chronically ill patients who don’t use digital tools.
Similarly, heavy digital users were more like to be admitted to the hospital with 32 percent of heavy mobile users spending at least one night in the hospital compared to only 11 percent of non-digital users.
Tip: Encourage patients who have many digital tools to consider paring down their digital health use. Help them figure out what they need, and keep only the apps that help them meet their health goals. Also, encourage them to spend less time on their digital devices and more time exercising and being active.
Use these insights to help inform your conversations about digital tools with chronically ill patients.
