Market Assessment of Digitalization in Healthcare - BKK Health Report 2017 Reveals: Insured people expect more digitalized support
The survey shows that BKK-insurants wish for an increasing digitalization of administrative processes. 68% of the survey participants would like to digitally transmit reports to their health insurance. Likewise, in case of illness around 65% would want to send their sick certificate to the insurance via email or app. However, respondents are skeptical when it comes to health monitoring and wearables. Only 15.5% would potentially use "sensors in everyday objects that permanently monitor health".
Respondents widely share the same opinion on data security. 80% consider data protection to be very important in the field of digital health. Among the respondents who have at least four different diseases even 90% claim that it's very important. In terms of dealing with data confidentially, the most trust is awarded to general practitioners with about 75%. In contrast, private companies are only trusted by 14.4%. However, men under the age of 30 trust private companies significantly more, voting 29%. About one third of respondents claim that not enough is being done yet to ensure data security.
The Statistics-Portal Statista expects 19% annual revenue growth in the eHealth sector and even sets a focus on monitoring and wearables in the analysis. Taking the comparatively poor usage potential for these products into consideration, as described in the BKK health report, the question arises if the market for these is currently being overestimated and if the revenue prognosis must be corrected.
The complete results of the survey can be found in the BKK health report (only in German).
BY Heike Kielhorn-Schönermark, MBA, Founder and Managing Director, SKC Beratungsgesellschaft mbH
Further sources:
Statista: ehealth - Germany
Ärzteblatt: Digitale Gesundheit - Versicherte wollen nicht alle Angebote nutzen (only in German)