Healthcare From Anywhere

Connected Nation Michigan found that while each community may face its own unique challenges to providing telehealth services, many trends and correlations may be found: 

• With regard to its state telehealth policy structure, Michigan is found to have a moderate telehealth policy environment, along with 17 other states. 
• By comparison, states with progressive state telehealth policies have lower rates on the Digital Divide Index proposed by Purdue University researcher Dr. Roberto Gallardo (DDI; this represents greater overall broadband access to more households) and fare better on both the socioeconomic and infrastructure indices that compose the DDI.
• Numerous Michigan counties have both infrastructure and socioeconomic opportunities that, if addressed, can improve broadband (and thus telehealth) opportunities for their residents.
• Across Michigan, ten counties are currently Care Underserved yet have relatively small digital divides to overcome, making them excellent targets for telehealth expansion in the near future. • In the five counties surveyed, approximately one in three adults (34%) said they went online to interact with healthcare providers in some form. Nearly one-half (48%) said they use the internet but do not interact with providers online, while the remaining 18% said they do not use the internet at all.
• Meanwhile, nearly two out of three respondents (62%) say their healthcare providers over an online portal, website, or mobile app where they can access their medical records, schedule appointments, or request a consultation.
• Among those who do interact with healthcare professionals online, the largest share (21%) interacted with a general practitioner or family physician, followed by those interacting with specialist physicians (15%); dentists, dental hygienists, or orthodontists (11%); convenient care facilities or walk-in clinics (9%); eye doctors, ophthalmologists, or opticians (9%); emergency rooms or hospitals (7%); and therapists, psychiatrists, or other mental health providers (5%).
• Interacting via a website is the most popular way of interacting with healthcare providers, used by 36% of those who interacted with providers online. This is followed in popularity by interacting via e-mail (34%), text messaging (17%), via mobile apps (12%), through video conference applications such as Skype (4%), and through social media (4%).
• Younger adults are most likely to use online tools to interact with healthcare providers online, with nearly one-half of respondents age 18-34 saying they do so at least occasionally.
• One in ten adults in these five counties have used online health services such as remote monitoring, counseling, or electronic reminders to follow their prescribed healthcare protocols within the past 12 months.
• Remote heart monitoring is the application used most often (used by 3.9% of adults in these counties), followed by electronic reminders to take medication or follow health protocols (2.3%); remote blood pressure monitoring (2.1%); remote glucose or blood sugar monitoring (1.8%); and accessing health or motivational coaching (1.5%).