In a specially prepared study, the Schwenninger health insurance company comes to the conclusion that at least half of all citizens are already prepared to forward health data obtained through apps to their doctor. She concludes in a press release that the goal should be to run this additional data through the telemetry system of the electronic health card. Health insurers and doctors can learn even more about their patients this way.
From the health insurance company's statement:
Half of Germans between the ages of 14 and 34 like the collection of personal body and fitness data via apps, smartwatches or activity trackers. Only just under one in five rejects digital health assistants. 62 percent would also make the data thus obtained available to their doctor, according to a study conducted by Schwenninger Krankenkasse and the foundation "Die Gesundarbeiter" under 1.000 young German citizens shows. Young adults run thereby the policy a large step ahead. The German government has now presented an e-health law, but Germany is still in the early stages of digital networking of the healthcare system.
"More and more people not only use pedometers, but also digitally record their vital functions such as pulse, blood prere or sleep rhythm. Digital health assistants have long been a reality, especially in the lives of young adults," says Thorsten Broske, CEO of Schwenninger Krankenkasse. So far, however, hardly anything of this has reached medical care, Broske states, and demands: "The e-health law must change this now. In other countries, insights from electronically captured information have long been successfully used to advise and treat patients."
In Germany, for example, the potential of the electronic health card is not being fully exploited, criticizes Thorsten Broske. "The card can do more and this must finally be tackled. It is essential that all telemedicine applications comply with data protection and data security requirements," emphasizes the AOK CEO."
The goal should be to also integrate health data obtained via apps into the telemedical infrastructure to be created. "In particular, the treatment of the chronically ill can be improved in an individualized and targeted manner with the help of new e-health applications. This offers great opportunities for medical care," says Tanja Katrin Hantke, health expert at the Schwenninger health insurance company.
At the same time, the exchange of medical data between doctors, clinics and pharmacies needs to be professionalized and communication improved. If at all, even electronically recorded medical findings and prescriptions only pass through the interfaces between the areas of care in paper form. Up to now, electronic data transmission has essentially been used for billing purposes.
Of course, telemedicine applications do not replace the doctor, but offer the opportunity to increase the reach of medical action. This is also the view of the young Germans surveyed in the study: 75 percent trust their doctor's assessment more than digital aids.