Why digital health still isn’t the savior for addressing chronic illness

When it comes to figuring out best practices for patient care – specifically those with chronic disease – one of the greatest challenges facing healthcare providers is integrating technological transformation into how care is delivered.

While digital health technology has all the potential in the world to reshape the landscape, are we moving too fast before doing our due diligence?

Consider everything that encompasses digital health technology, from remote monitoring to mobile health and wearables, and you can see where there could wind up being lots of confusion and overlap for those managing chronic disease.

There are a ton of different options on the market, but how many of these are actually beneficial for a patient facing chronic illness? While many physicians acknowledge the potential of such technologies, they hesitate to fully embrace them for fear that they aren’t yet fully understood.

One area where we’ve seen some success is in the area of remote monitoring, which assists with early intervention and can assist in pinpointing specific symptoms from afar. Even still, many feel there is still much work to be done before the digital revolution has a huge impact on how we manage chronic illness.

When will we reach critical digital mass in healthcare? At this point, only time will tell.