Seven out of 10 Korean patients believe the nation needs to introduce “digital healthcare,” prioritizing pretreatment consulting, such as health monitoring and chatbot counseling, posttreatment management, telemedicine, and remote multidisciplinary treatment.
Korea Health Industry Development Institute has released the results of a survey on the patients’ awareness of digital healthcare and demand for it, conducted by Korea Research.
The online survey was conducted from Sept. 8 to Nov. 18 on 933 patients who had received treatments due to specific diseases for three months or more. Pollsters asked questions on the respondents’ experiences using digital healthcare, satisfaction level, intent to use, anticipated effects, concerns, and improvement.
The result showed that 76.8 percent of respondents replied it is necessary to introduce “digital healthcare.” Furthermore, they cited “chronic ailments” as the disease that can be managed by digital healthcare most effectively.
Up to 94.5 percent of pollees showed intention to use digital healthcare for surgery and treatment, such as 3D printing, digital treatment devices, and the provision of information on taking drugs,
Asked to name the service to be introduced most urgently, 42 percent cited the “collecting health information and monitoring physical conditions,” followed by 16.2 percent who pointed to pretreatment counseling and posttreatment management, including chatbot counseling, and 13.1 percent who cited telemedicine and remote interdisciplinary treatment.
Patients with chronic ailments cited “collecting health information and monitoring physical condition” more frequently than other patients. People with cancer and rare diseases prioritized “pretreatment counseling and posttreatment management” and “telemedicine and remote interdisciplinary treatment.”
As to digital healthcare’s anticipated effects, 46.5 percent said “it would allow them to prevent, manage, and treat diseases without visiting medical institutions, chased by 20.4 percent who pointed to the “continuous health management without space and time restraints,” and 11.7 percent who cited “personalized healthcare.”
Among concerns they expressed were “risk of errors or medical accidents” (51.8 percent), “security and protection of personal information” (19.4 percent), and “additional financial burden” (14.7 percent).
Asked what needs to be improved, 49.9 percent pointed to “securing data credibility and accuracy (49.9 percent), “preparing a security system to protect personal information (14.6 percent), and “setting up reward system” (11.3 percent).
In an earlier survey, both medical professionals and patients picked “collecting health information and monitoring physical condition” as the most urgent service that needs to be introduced.
Coming next were the “health education and the provision of convenience in booking, paying and making insurance claims” in the case of doctors. In comparison, patients cited “pretreatment counseling and posttreatment management” and “telemedicine and remote interdisciplinary treatment,” revealing differences in awareness and demands with medical professionals.
Both patients and medical workers were concerned about the “risks of error and medical accidents” in introducing digital healthcare. However, a larger share of medical professionals (65.2 percent) showed worries about the risk of errors and medical accidents than patients (51.5 percent).
Patients (19.4 percent) were more concerned about protecting personal information and security problems than medical workers (16.5 percent).
Regarding things requiring improvement, both groups pointed to “securing data credibility and accuracy” ahead of all else.
“We can use the results of the latest survey on patients’ awareness of digital healthcare and their demand for it as the basis for making policies for patient-oriented digital healthcare policy,” the state-run institute said. “We will need additional surveys as digital technology improves and related service expands.”