Developed Markets Access Advanced Healthcare While Emerging Markets Ahead in Connectivity

Three-quarters (76%) of healthcare professionals in developed markets agree their patients have access to the treatments required for current and future medical conditions, as compared to 58% of those in emerging markets. But emerging markets like South Africa and the United Arab Emirates seem to be ahead in the adoption of connected devices, and more healthcare professionals in emerging economies expect connected devices to be used for health management in the future.

Going forward, the adoption of connected devices will increase with a ‘digitally native’ generation coming of age, as less experienced healthcare professionals and younger patients are more likely to see, use and share information from connected technology in comparison to their older peers. These are the findings of Royal Philips (Amsterdam, The Netherlands), a leading health technology company, from the first edition of its Future Health Index (FHI) study.

In terms of perceived state of readiness of each market to benefit from integration across healthcare systems, the United Arab Emirates achieved the highest score – 65.3 – among participating nations, with The Netherlands and China also coming in high, with scores of 58.9 and 58.1, while Germany, Brazil and Japan received the lowest scores in terms of readiness, at 54.5, 50.6 and 49.0, respectively.

Other key findings from the FHI study showed that despite progress made by some markets in universal medical records, 74% had to repeat the same information to multiple healthcare professionals, and 60% had taken the same tests repeatedly. While 57% of patients owned or used a connected care device to monitor various health indicators, only 33% had ever shared this information with their doctor.

More than half (57%) of the patients aged between 18 to 34 years reported owning or using at least one health monitoring device, and 25% believed themselves to be knowledgeable about connected care technology, as compared to 14% of those aged 55 and older.

Most of the patients (69%) felt they were knowledgeable enough to manage their own health, but only 40% of healthcare professionals agreed. The study found that as patients age, they are more likely to believe themselves to be the guardians of their own health, with 79% of those 55 years or older agreeing to being fully responsible for preventing poor health, as compared to younger patients (66% of those aged between 18 to 34 years globally).

A majority of patients (69%) and healthcare professionals (85%) believed that integrated health systems and connected technologies are capable of improving quality of care for patients, and 88% of doctors agreed that integration can have a direct positive impact on population health management.

Half (54%) of healthcare professionals and 43% of patients pointed to health system bureaucracy as a key barrier to further coordinating data information sharing and integration of healthcare systems in their countries.

Half of healthcare professionals (52%) and patients (51%) believed that resources required for training and data security could result in connected care devices pushing up overall healthcare costs.

“The Future Health Index has uncovered a number of significant areas where healthcare systems must transform if they are going to succeed in delivering long-term value-based care,” said Frans van Houten, CEO of Royal Philips. “However, it is encouraging to see many countries are starting from a reasonably strong position in their readiness to adopt the connected digital technologies which will ultimately drive transformation.”

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