Survey Shows Consumers are Excited, but Concerned, about Connected Healthcare Technologies

Trusted Future published a comprehensive national survey of 2,414 Americans to better understand how consumers are using connected health technologies to improve health, the barriers they feel must be overcome, and the potential steps policymakers can take to further improve outcomes from digital health technology.

The survey found that Americans are adopting a broad range of connected health technologies to improve their daily lives, and believe emerging technologies hold great promise for helping people improve health outcomes, live healthier lifestyles, improve preventative care, and gain access to remote care anytime, anywhere. But to enable these health gains — and help Americans live longer and healthier lives — consumers need to be able to trust that their technologies will be effective at protecting their most sensitive health data.

Key findings of the survey include:

• 58% of respondents rated as positive the fact that there are now more than 300,000 health-related applications available for download to a mobile device (apps to help track and improve health in areas like diet, fitness, weight loss, heart health and brain games)
• 80% of respondents expressed concern about their private data being sold without their consent, shared with others without permission, or being lost or stolen and subsequently showing up in public.
• 59% of respondents said they are more likely to trust connected health technologies when companies are prevented from collecting and selling location and other sensitive information without explicit consent.
• 52% of respondents want policymakers to reject efforts that have the effect of weakening strong encryption, and encourage the efforts of companies to protect their customers by deploying strong encryption.
• The same number of respondents said they would be more likely to trust health technologies if their personal data is backed up in an encrypted way.

Ken Gude, Executive Director of Trusted Future:

“Consumers see connected health technologies as beneficial and believe they can have positive impacts for society by expanding access to healthcare and drastically improving health outcomes, but high in their minds is whether they can trust them. They need to be able to trust that these incredible technologies are not just effective and affordable, but that they are designed to protect their privacy and data security. Even though we are still in the early stages of connected health technology, consumers see the impact, believe in the potential, and want policymakers to support comprehensive privacy protections and strong encryption to build trust in their adoption.”

The full survey is available to download at www.trustedfuture.org.