Digital technology is increasing in healthcare with new players such as Google Health, Apple Health, Microsoft HealthVault and IBM ‘Watson’ entering the sector.

Paul Mannu, director at Cello Health Insight said: “What is really interesting is how digital technology is bringing healthcare professionals closer to patients. One of the websites that doctors are accessing most is www.patient.co.uk, which is primarily designed for patients and includes large sections dedicated to patient-led forums. These sites are giving doctors an opportunity to listen to the voice of patients – and in turn empowering patients with information so they can be more involved in decisions about their own healthcare.”

The era of Googling one’s ailments is prevalent with 72% of UK doctors agreeing that patients often look up their condition online prior to a consultation and 63% of UK doctors saying that patients often come to them with a diagnosis they want to discuss having researched it online.

However apps are slower to take off. Only one third ( 33%) of UK doctors said they are likely to recommend a health app to their patients. For those UK doctors who are recommending apps, they are for diet and weight loss, general health and fitness, health monitoring and smoking cessation.

The research consisted of 1,090 interviews across a range of different physician types and eight markets from 10^th to 31^st July 2015. The markets covered were US, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, China and Brazil.