3 questions to Loïck Menvielle on the 2024 Barometer dedicated to connected health

What changes (2) do you see in this 2024 connected health barometer, compared with the first one published at the end of 2022 (3)?

This second wave of the survey shows a cautious evolution in perceptions and uses of connected health tools. We are talking here about online platforms for booking medical appointments and health monitoring applications.

In one year, confidence in these online services has fallen, resulting in a sharp decline in their use. Only 21% of the French people questioned said they were prepared to use all existing connected health solutions (down 9 points compared to the end of 2022). Only 69% are prepared to make greater use of connected healthcare in general. A drop of 7 points!

This trend can also be observed among people with chronic illnesses. They make little use of connected health tools to monitor and manage their illness (24%), down 8 points compared to the previous wave.

The French are also questioning the legitimacy of the actors involved in connected healthcare. Only 52% of French people (down 15 points) believe that it is up to public hospitals to offer digital therapeutic services, and 41% (down 13 points) believe that it is up to private healthcare services.

Finally, the desire of the French to maintain a "humanised" healthcare system is confirmed. A majority still rely on their doctor alone, but 4 out of 10 are now prepared to put their trust in a doctor/artificial intelligence pairing, whether for diagnosing or treating illnesses.

How do you explain this increased reticence towards connected healthcare in just over a year?

First of all, most French people have already used connected health tools to make an appointment online with a doctor, and more than half say they have already used a health monitoring application. However, much remains to be done to make these services available to as many people as possible, and to reduce the disparities in use between patients.

69% of those surveyed do not feel well informed about connected health, an increase of 5 points compared to 2022. Unsurprisingly, graduates aged between 18 and 34 who live in cities say they are the best informed and the most open to using these solutions. Conversely, those who are "excluded from digital" tend to be older, live in rural areas and have fewer qualifications. These are also the people who have the most difficulty accessing a doctor.

Another reason for reluctance to use connected health tools is fears about data security and reliability. These are also on the increase compared with the first wave of the barometer.

42% of respondents express doubts about the security and misuse of the personal health data collected, compared with 36% at the end of 2022. The majority of French people consulted do not feel confident about sharing their personal data with anyone other than their GP (85% versus 84% at the end of 2022). Public hospitals (65%), health insurance (62%), private hospitals (51%) and clinical research organisations remain far behind. The cyber attacks against various hospital groups in 2023 and the Social Security data leak in early 2024 may have something to do with this.

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare is greeted with a mixture of mistrust and hope. What does this mean?

It all depends on what you're talking about. For many French people, Artificial Intelligence (AI) remains an unknown that they tend to distrust (average confidence score of 4.6/10). Their perception of the benefits offered by digital therapeutic services (big data, AI, etc.) for personalised healthcare is mixed.

Here again, a clear majority of patients still trust their doctor alone to diagnose (58%) and treat (60%) pathologies. However, more and more of them are looking to generative AI - in other words, programmes trained to interact with the user, such as ChatGPT - as a tool for validating human expertise. AI arouses curiosity among almost half of French people (47%), and a slight majority (55%) think that their use is beneficial, particularly among 18-34 year-olds and those from higher socio-professional groups.

It is in the area of disease prevention that the use of AI is perceived as most trustworthy by patients. Two thirds of the French people surveyed would even change their lifestyle on the basis of personalised health advice from an AI if it could accurately predict an illness before it occurs! A majority trust artificial intelligence to speed up the diagnosis of serious illnesses (57%) and improve the quality of care (59%).

These results show that we need to improve the information and education surrounding these technologies, in order to boost user confidence and encourage wider adoption!

References

(1) IPSOS survey conducted in February 2024 among 1,000 French people aged 18 to 74. - https://www.edhec.edu/sites/default/files/2024-04/2024-04-deuxieme-barometre-sante-connectee-bms-edhec-ipsos.pdf

(2) Press release, April 2024 "Baromètre EDHEC x BMS - Santé connectée : un recul de l’utilisation et une confiance en demi-teinte" - https://www.edhec.edu/sites/default/files/communiques-presse/CP_Barometre_Sante_Connectee_BMS_EDHEC.pdf

(3) Discover the results of the 1st Barometer on connected health : https://www.edhec.edu/en/news/discover-results-1st-barometer-connected-health-bms-edhec-ipsos