Mark Sullivan over at Venture Beat News:”Guess what? Doctors don’t care about your Fitbit data“:
But sources in the medical devices, digital health, and healthcare industries say that most doctors have little time for, or interest in, using wellness data collected by wearable devices. They don’t want to spend money on additional (and unproven clinical systems), and most of all, they don’t want to worry about keeping the data private.
“It’s just one more data set they have to deal with, and they’re already wrestling with lots of data every day,” one source told me. A doctor might be interested in knowing whether or not a patient wears a Fitbit or a Jawbone wearable to count steps, and even encourage the habit, but they do not want to receive a constant flow of biometrics data from patients.
“Doctors would love to be excited about wearables — they’re gadget guys at heart — but their day-to-day is spent battling 30 year old fax machines to get your last lab report.” says Jeff Tangney, CEO of Doximity, which makes a social communication platform for clinicians. “For a busy doctor, the ability to use email would save more lives than a Fitbit.”
Go read my Upshot piece from June 16. Or watch this week’s Healthcare Triage episode.
