If they are recognized by the general public and health professionals, connected health objects are also factors of apprehension, in particular concerning medical confidentiality.
We have been told for several months, connected health objects will soon be inevitable. From the bracelet that counts the number of steps we take per day, to the bathroom scale that establishes weight curves, through the connected bottle, or the connected toothbrush … the limit seems to be only the imagination .
One question remained until now: what do patients and healthcare professionals think? In a survey carried out by Odoxa for France Inter and Le Figaro (1), 67% of French people and 81% of doctors consider that connected objects are “an opportunity for the quality of care”. They are even more numerous (78% for the general public, and 91% for doctors) to judge that connected objects are “an opportunity for prevention. “
Precrits to 5% of patients
Thanks to these objects connected to the Internet, it is possible to measure his blood pressure or his blood sugar level, before the results are sent to his doctor. These tools are then considered as medical objects, unlike so-called “general public” products which deal more with well-being than health: this is the case with running sensors for joggers or objects which measure and analyze. your sleep. The Belty “connected belt”, produced by the French company Emiota, has the particularity of tightening or loosening depending on the behavior of its owner. It made its small impression at the last conference of new technologies in Las Vegas.
Faced with this unanimity, one could imagine that doctors would prescribe (or at least recommend) the use of connected health objects to their patients. Nothing is less true: only 5% of patients have already been recommended connected objects, whether they are general public or medical.
27% of patients would be ready to use them, according to doctors
While 70% of patients (including 31% who say they are even “certain”) declare that they would be ready to be equipped with connected objects by their doctors, the latter estimate at only 27% the proportion of their patients who would be ready to accept them. Why ? Doctors “greatly underestimate the capacity of their patients to accept them”, analyzes Gaël Slimna, president of Odoxa.
Another contradiction remains: despite the undeniable appetite for these connected objects, 50% of the general public believes that connected health “is a threat to medical confidentiality”. Just like one in two doctors.
Overall, the general public expresses an interest in these products but is wary of the consequences of their use. Thus, 54% believe that “for medicine to be as effective as possible, patients must let the doctors do it”, and that the field of intervention of patients is limited.
A fear that is not entirely unfounded because if the health insurance approvals for connected medical devices are particularly demanding, the regulations are much lighter for general public objects.
(1) This opinion survey was carried out by Odoxa for MNH and Orange published in partnership with Le Figaro Santé and France Inter and with the scientific support of Sciences Po Chaire Santé. The results come from a triple survey, carried out for the “general public” part on 1016 people representative of the French population aged 18 and over, for the “patients” part, a sample of 406 people with chronic diseases or long-term illnesses resulting from a representative sample of the French population aged 18 and over, and for the “doctors” part, a sample of 399 specialist and general practitioners.
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