Approximately 85 percent of patients feel email, text message and voicemail engagement is as helpful, if not more helpful, than in-person or phone conversations with providers, according to a new report by West, a global provider of communication and network infrastructure services.
The report, "Technology-Enabled Communications: The Key to Connected Healthcare," focuses on technology's role in improving communication in the management of routine, chronic and transition care.
Communication helps motivate chronic care patients, in particular, and engages them in their own care. Here are five findings:
• Thirty-nine percent of obese patients believe receiving weight management tips from their physician will motivate them to make lifestyle improvements.
• Around 38 percent of patients with diabetes are interested in getting weight-management advice from their physician.
• Thirty-seven percent of patients with hypertension are interested in receiving tips from their physician about weight management.
• Approximately 36 percent of patients with diabetes welcome stress-management communications from their physician.
• Around 35 percent of patients with hypertension welcome stress-management communications from their physician.
"The key to achieving the best results is not only incorporating different devices and technology into patient care, but also ensuring these devices are complemented by technology-enabled communications to engage and activate patients and aid clinical staff in providing needed interventions and feedback," according to the report.