Teleconsultations, applications… the use of e-health is widely supported by the French, but also raises concerns.
According to a new survey (1), the use of e-health is widely supported, but also raises concerns, especially among the elderly. To the question “Are you a priori in favor of the development of e-health?”, 76% of the patient associations questioned answered “yes”.
Three quarters (77%) believe that e-health is an effective solution to fight against medical deserts. For 57% of them, the use of teleconsultation could in particular allow better access to care and make up for the lack of doctors in certain specialties. Associations are also a majority to think that e-health can have a positive impact on prevention, on follow-up and adherence to treatment (62%), on the level and quality of information (65% ) and on lifestyle (72%).
Lack of knowledge
However, 16% of respondents do not know how to position themselves vis-à-vis e-health, probably due to a lack of knowledge or information on the subject. For the WHO, e-health is defined as “digital services at the service of the well-being of the person” and “the use of tools for the production, transmission, management and sharing of digitized information for the benefit of both medical and medico-social practices”. It is not limited to telemedicine and must be assimilated to the vast set of digital applications for providing care.
If nearly one association out of two thinks that this approach will have no impact on the confidentiality of the information exchanged, 21% believe that it will have unfavorable repercussions. Furthermore, 20% of associations whose members are mostly elderly (over 65) fear a deterioration in the level and quality of information (compared to less than 9% of associations for other age groups).
Inequality
The majority of associations (72%) also think that the growing use of e-health risks creating inequalities due to a lack of equipment (73%) or lack of mastery of the digital tool (85 %). Again, these fears are greater among older people. For Françoise Benon, president of the National Federation France-AVC: “these inequalities come from the fact that some people, especially the older majority, do not necessarily have a computer or a smartphone”.
There are also concerns about the doctor-patient relationship. Thus, even if nearly half of the associations expect an improvement in this relationship, one in five (20%) fears a deterioration. “For patients, the quality of the relationship with their doctor is closely linked to listening, to availability as well as to the effectiveness of care. If e-health, in certain aspects, can greatly improve the quality of this relationship, it is difficult to know for the moment if it will have, or already has, a positive impact on it”, explains Anne Buisson, Deputy director of the François Aupetit association (Afa Crohn RCH).
These concerns are also shared by doctors
Finally, note that these concerns are also shared by doctors. 52% (2) believe that the proximity and trust between doctors and patients are likely to deteriorate in the years to come, pointing in particular to the risk of “distancing” or even “dehumanization” of medicine.
“Doctors are more worried than patients about this, contrary to what we thought. Three types of fear exist among doctors: the risk of less precise diagnosis, the lack of confidence of patients in the caregiver’s diagnosis, and the increase in territorial or social inequalities linked to less access to digital technology”, concludes Aurélien Preud’homme, study director at Viavoice.
1) Results of the survey of the Pfizer laboratory “E-health seen by patients: risk or opportunity?” carried out with nearly 300 patient associations.
2) According to a study carried out by Groupe VYV’s future health observatory.
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