Though American healthcare providers have embraced the use of EHRs at record-high rates, they lag behind the rest of the world in adopting other digital health technologies such as telehealth and artificial intelligence.
Additionally, according to Philips' Future Health Index 2019 report, though U.S. clinicians rely more on EHRs to share patient information than those in many other countries, they are much less satisfied with the effects of that reliance.
Here are three key takeaways from the report, which surveyed more than 3,100 healthcare professionals in 15 countries.
1. Of the U.S. providers surveyed, 84 percent use EHRs in their practice, considerably higher than the 15-country average of 76 percent.
2. American healthcare professionals using EHRs reported improvement in quality of care, patient outcomes and their own job satisfaction — but at significantly lower rates than the rest of the world. The most sizable difference came in the arena of clinician satisfaction: While 64 percent of global EHR users surveyed reported increases in professional satisfaction, just 32 percent of American users did so.
3. The U.S. also fell below average in telehealth and AI adoption: Only 46 percent of American healthcare professionals utilize telehealth services, and just 33 percent have implemented AI into their practice, compared to the 15-country averages of 61 percent and 46 percent, respectively.
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