The audience accessing health information content on their mobile device is on the rise in the U.S., quickly becoming one of the fastest-growing content categories.
16.9 million mobile users in the U.S. accessed health information on their device during the three-month average period ending November 2011, growing 125 percent from the previous year. Of those that accessed health information, nearly 3 in 5 were under the age of 35.
Given the relatively low number of healthcare organizations that have actually deployed an optimized mobile website, I’m curious to hear from healthcare admins: Do you think it’s enough for your healthcare organization to just be online?
Mobile internet access is not a mere fad – widespread adoption of mobile communications means an investment in mobile development now can set your healthcare organization apart. Hospital websites that are optimized for smartphone browsers:
• Better attract new patients who are looking for healthcare information on their smartphones. People have come to expect easy access to information on their smartphones, so if potential patients find it easier to use your website, they will probably turn to you for their healthcare needs. On the flip side, if your organization does not provide easy access, they may browse to another site that does.
• Boost their patient satisfaction scores. Because mobile users have global access to information and people anywhere, anytime, and anyplace, mobile tools help improve communications with patients, as well as physicians, other care providers and employees.
But I’m curious. If you agree, then why the slow adoption?
The results of this survey appear to track proportionately to the overall up-trend in smartphone ownership (smartphones in use expected to quintuple desktop / laptop PC usage numbers by 2015).
Add to that the relative personal privacy that smartphones afford over (usually) shared PCs and workstations, and it’s no surprise that people may feel more comfortable using a hand-held device to research personal medical issues than otherwise.
The study does drive the point home, though, on both the mobile-friendliness of existing medical information websites – which is usually not the case today – and the overall degree of netcentricity of the multitudes of online medical information providers.