Most people in the U.S. use at least one medical device at home — likely a blood pressure monitor. used by nearly one-half of people based on a survey of 2,000 consumers conducted for Propel Software. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Propel study’s insights build on what we know is a growing ethos among health consumers seeking to take more control over their health care and the rising costs of medical bills and out-of-pocket expenses.

That includes oral health and dental bills: 2 in 5 U.S. consumers use electric toothbrushes (a growing smart-device category at the annual CES).

One in four consumers owned a fitness tracker, Propel learned, with nearly the same percentage also owning either a smartwatch or a smart ring (e.g., Oura or other ring in this growing category of tracking wearables).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This study looked into the digital health device users’ perspectives for and experiences with sharing the data beyond their own tracking and “eyes.”

One in 4 consumers have been alerted by a personal medical device regarding a pending health issue.

Importantly, impactfully in terms of health care, three-fourths of folks using medical devices at home said after receiving that alert, their issue was successfully diagnosed once consulting with a doctor. And, when they were alerted, 84% found the data valuable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A key consideration in people adopting and using connected health devices is that doctor: about one-half of device owners were motivated to purchase a digital health device if their doctor recommended their doing so.

“Trust runs deep with doctor reviews and data sharing,” Propel’s report out of the survey data called out. 7 in 10 people said their devices were more trustworthy when accompanied directly by doctors’ office reviews.

Then there’s the issue of sharing the consumer-generated data.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overall, 2 in 3 consumers would be comfortable sharing the data coming out of a self-tracking medical device with doctors: both with general practitioners (62%) and with specialists they have relationships with (66%).

Propel’s survey findings comport with research I’ve been tracking since the advent of the first Fitbit on the market launched at CES 2009. With heart health now table stakes for wearable technology sensors, smartwatches mainstreaming for many medical and wellbeing tracking issues with more sensors embedded on the wrist (and on the hand within smartrings), health tracking is no longer relegated to an elite group of people affiliating with the Quantified Self movement.

From grandmothers to their grandkids, people are tracking a wide range of metrics across the care and life-continuum.

 

 

 

 

 

The one data point that stands out in this survey, different from other studies I’ve been tracking, is that two-thirds of consumers told Propel they would pay a “nominal subscription fee if required” to access analytics, online resources, recall information, and software enhancements.

The needle on nudging health consumers to pay subscription fees for data analysis has moved somewhat, noting, for example, the Oura ring successfully inspiring people to pay out-of-pocket for ongoing access to health insights and sometimes coaching hints to stay on-track and alter behaviors.

But this is one piece of the consumer experience and demand side for digital health tracking that needs careful analysis leading to successful marketing positioning and pricing. Part of the consumer side of the out-of-pocket value proposition is that most people said it was key that, “medical devices have a consumer-friendly appearance,” Propel notes in the survey findings. I would expand that more generally to say that UX, CX, and service design principles should/must be baked into consumer-facing connected health technologies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Health Populi’s Hot Points:    What we-know-we-know is that the pandemic experience, emerging five years ago this week based on WHO’s pronouncement of the public health emergency, is that our homes became our health hubs. This became true for all aspects of health:

  • Turbocharging telehealth and virtual care with our physicians and health professionals;
  • Growing reach of tele-mental health with therapy accessible to many more people than had been able to benefit from psychologists, psychiatrists, and counselors in local communities; and,
  • Taking on physical therapy at home — with the growth of musculoskeletal virtual service (MSK) benefiting many patients requiring these services — and being the platform for a company like Hinge Health filing its registration with the SEC to go public this week. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Furthermore, the DIY zeitgeist for home cooking and home-making also accelerated in the past five years (as it had during the 2008-9 Great Recession).

Beyond Instagramming our lovely sourdough  bread attempts, we have seen a growing interesting (and paying for) food-as-medicine to bolster energy, mindfulness, help with sleep and mood, and manage gut and heart health. Needless to say, the hockey-stick consumer adoption and use of GLP-1 medicines has also shifted health consumers’ shopping basket behaviors in the grocery store and other adjacent sectors in apparel, travel and hospitality, and home furnishings (covered often here in Health Populi).  For example, check this post out on the GLP-1 ecosystem for consumers’ self-care and retail health landscape.

As for payment, with more consumers looking to manage care and costs in their households, value will be in the eye of the beholder — as value-based payment takes hold in health plans and self-insured employer plan design, so, too, will health consumers be value- (and values-) based. Thus the call for being design-ful along the way of designing, deploying, and supporting connected health devices.