There are five times as many people using wearable devices to monitor their health in England today than there were back in 2014, new research has found.
After surveying 1,043 healthcare consumers, consultancy firm Accenture found that the number that use wearables has risen from 6% to 31% over the last four years.
It was also found that more are open to the idea of digital-based medical care, with almost two-thirds now willing to use clinical services powered by artificial intelligence.
A home-based diagnosis tool was the top service respondents said they would use, followed by a virtual health coach, and a virtual nurse for monitoring conditions.
The prospect of 24-hour availability, and saving time from travel, were the two main reasons given for accepting the technology.
"Consumers increasingly expect to use digital technologies to control when, where and how they receive care services," said Accenture's health lead in England, Niamh McKenna.
"Healthcare will increasingly tap digital technologies to empower human judgment, free up clinician time and personalise care services to put control in the patients' hands."
The findings also show that the use of mobile health apps has jumped from 13% to 48% since 2014, and that more patients are accessing their electronic health records.
Moreover, some 88% of the survey respondents said they would be willing to share personal data collected digitally with a doctor, although this drops to 33% for employers.
This comes after separate research from Munich Re suggested that health and life insurers could harness the power technology to address a lack of trust for the industry.
The firm found that automated-underwriting based on electronic health records could improve the claims process, and that 68% of consumers would be happy to share information this way.
"We have missed how fundamental our application processes are when seeking to establish trust with our customers," Munich Re UK & Ireland life & health head of protection, Ian Davies, said.
"We will be working with the industry to demonstrate how automated underwriting based on medical evidence on electronic health reports can deliver better customer trust."
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