The American Medical Association's digital health research released today shows increased rates of digital health adoption among physicians over the last six years and provides insights into their expectations.

"The AMA survey illustrates the importance physicians place on validated digital health tools that improve health while streamlining the technological and administrative burdens faced each day in medicine," said AMA President Dr. Jack Resneck Jr. in a statement.

"These technologies also must be designed and deployed in ways that advance health equity," he added.

Doctors across specialties adopting RPM tools

The purpose of the survey, which measured across all ages and specialties, according to AMA, was to investigate physicians' motivations and requirements for onboarding digital health technologies and integrating them into their medical practices.

The number of physicians who saw the tools as an advantage grew from 85% in 2016 to 93% in 2022, and named improved clinical outcomes and work efficiencies as the driving factors, followed by the ability to reduce stress and burnout, electronic health record integrations and data privacy assurances.

The average number of digital health tools in use by a physician grew from 2.2 in 2016 to 3.8 in 2022, with the largest growth in remote care tools. 

Growth in use of telehealth was most striking amongst those surveyed. In 2016, 14% of physicians were using telehealth, but that figure grew to more than 80% in 2022.  

Use of remote monitoring devices grew from 12% to more than 30% of physicians surveyed over the six years.

Physicians eyeing digital therapeutics in the future

Usage is currently low for emerging technologies such as augmented intelligence – one in five physicians currently integrate AI, while two in five plan to adopt the technologies in the next year. 

Digital therapeutics received the highest percentage for the digital tool physicians indicated they are planning to implement. 

"The physician adoption rate of digital health tools has accelerated as physicians grow increasingly optimistic about the advantages that properly designed digital health tools can have for patient care, if key requirements are met," said Resneck.

Andrea Fox is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Email: afox@himss.org
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS publication.