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Do you get WhatsApp messages from your doctor? Almost certainly not if you’re reading this in the US or UK - but if you’re in Brazil it’ll be an everyday occurrence.
A new global study of how doctors use wearable technology, apps and social media has shown that British doctors are slow to embrace some of the latest digital developments.
Just two per cent of UK doctors have ever used WhatsApp to get hold of patients. In Italy, 62 per cent do it, and in Brazil the figure soars to 87 per cent.
Text and email are becoming increasingly common options, with a third and half of doctors using the communication methods respectively, but globally, the trusty old telephone remains the most common method of choice, with 84 per cent of doctors saying they use the phone to get hold of patients.
What of healthcare apps? Although previous research has shown significant optimism over apps and wearables’ potential in healthcare, with four in five doctors agreeing digital health is “here to stay”, it seems adoption is some way off yet. And worryingly, interest is already waning.
Although more than half, 55 per cent, of doctors have recommended a healthcare app to patients, only a rough third, 36 per cent, intend to do so again in future.
Paul Mannu, director of Cello Health Insight, said this is because doctors currently don’t think of digital health tools as a serious way of preventing disease:
The game-changer will be seeing an app that shows a patient benefit such as reducing their disease burden at the same time as reducing the burden for the physician.
Via Pharma Guy
But why use WhatsApp?
It’s a cheaper replacement for SMS. It looks and feels much like conventional text messages, but doesn’t come with the big fees.
In Spain, where WhatsApp had a commanding 96 percent marketshare last year, a text message costs €0.15. WhatsApp, in contrast, is free and has many features that SMS does not. It tells users when messages have been delivered and when they’ve been read. There’s an option where you can tell people when you last popped online. “It’s a great platform that works almost all the time,” says Eric Freeman, a marketing consultant based in Madrid who’s been using the software for the past two years.
NOTE:
WhatsApp, the Facebook-owned messaging service, was ordered by a Brazilian judge to shut down for two days. The ban took effect at midnight local time (9pm ET on Dec. 16), but amid public outcry a court in São Paulo overturned the ruling and reinstated the service after around 12 hours (link in Portuguese).
Brazil’s telecoms industry, which sees so-called “over the top” voice and messaging services delivered over the internet as a threat to its business model, has been lobbying the government for months to declare these services illegal, according to TechCrunch. But the telecoms may not be behind the short-lived shutdown: Reuters reports that a local TV network said the court order stemmed from a criminal case involving one of São Paulo’s largest gangs, which used WhatsApp “in the commission of crimes.”