Over the past three years, physicians have moved to adopt more digital health tools in their practice, according to the results of a Sept. 13 study by the American Medical Association.
AMA Digital Health Research surveyed 1,300 physicians in three regular intervals between 2016 and 2022 to investigate physician motivations and requirements for integrating digital health tools into their practices.
Here's what the researchers found:
- An increasing percentage of physicians believe there are advantages in leveraging digital health solutions. The percentage of physicians who believe digital health tools are an advantage for patient care grew from 85 percent in 2016 to 93 percent in 2022, and increases were measured across all ages and specialties.
- Adoption of digital tools has grown significantly among all physicians regardless of gender, specialty or age. The average number of digital health tools in use by a physician grew from 2.2 in 2016 to 3.8 in 2022.
- Improved clinical outcomes and work efficiency are the top factors influencing physician interest in digital health tools.
- The ability to reduce stress and burnout has also gained importance as a key driver of digital tool adoption.
- Liability coverage remains the most important requirement for physician adoption of digital health tools followed by integration with their EHR and assurances for data privacy.
- The largest growth in adoption was among digital health tools that aid in remote care.
- The percentage of physicians using telehealth visits and virtual visits grew from 14 percent in 2016 to 80 percent in 2022 while the percentage of physicians using remote monitoring devices grew from 12 percent in 2016 to 30 percent in 2022.