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WhatsApp’s global cross-platform rollout of end-to-end encryption could incentivize more US doctors to use the messaging service to communicate with patients or colleagues, according to Cello Health Insight (cited by Fortune).
This could vastly improve the reach and speed of communication between doctors and patients.
Just 4% of doctors in the US use the chat app to communicate with other doctors or patients. The low adoption rate is mostly out of concern about violating Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) privacy regulations. In other markets where regulations aren't as severe, such as Brazil and China, the use of WhatsApp among doctors is much more prevalent. In Brazil, roughly 90% of doctors use the app to communicate with patients. There are more than 100 million WhatsApp users in Brazil, making the chat app a powerful tool for reaching patents.
The use of WhatsApp in healthcare makes sense for a number of reasons:
- It’s a safe and secure communication portal. End-to-end encryption makes it extremely difficult for anyone other than the participants of an interaction to gain access to message contents. In fact, the technology is “about one of the best safeguards you can have in place,” according to health data attorney Katie Kenney.
- It’s everywhere. The proliferation of WhatsApp, and chat apps in general, means it could vastly improve the reach of health warnings and the like. WhatsApp was integral in tracking the spreading of the recent Zika virus outbreak, Cello notes. Doctors used the service to share symptoms they were seeing, as well as babies’ CT scans.
- It could save time. Messaging allows doctors to maintain a patient’s overall health without needing to see them in person. This will help free up time otherwise taken by patients booking appointments simply to ask for advice or to check in.
- It’s free, for now. WhatsApp is free to download and does not charge users for access to any of its service. This could be a very appealing incentive to hospital administrators looking for a secure and easy mode of communication, expediting the adoption of the app within healthcare.
Nevertheless, there are still concerns over the genuine security that end-to-end encryption provides for data on the devices, Anurag Lal, CEO of enterprise messaging solutions companyInfinite Convergence told BI Intelligence. This means that while data being transferred between devices is safe, when it is at rest either on the device or on servers, there is no guarantee that the information is encrypted or secure. This could become a massive issue if hospital servers or even individual devices were hacked into or stolen.
Messaging apps such as WhatsApp have evolved beyond simple text communication tools to encompass commerce, file sharing, and more, and this healthcare application could be the next step in that evolution.
BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on messaging apps that takes a close look at the size of the messaging app market, how these apps are changing, and the types of opportunities for monetization that have emerged from the growing audience that uses messaging services daily.
Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:
- Mobile messaging apps are massive. The largest services have hundreds of millions of monthly active users (MAU). Falling data prices, cheaper devices, and improved features are helping propel their growth.
- Messaging apps are about more than messaging. The first stage of the chat app revolution was focused on growth. In the next phase, companies will focus on building out services and monetizing chat apps’ massive user base.
- Popular Asian messaging apps like WeChat, KakaoTalk, and LINE have taken the lead in finding innovative ways to keep users engaged. They’ve also built successful strategies for monetizing their services.
- Media companies, and marketers are still investing more time and resources into social networks like Facebook and Twitter than they are into messaging services. That will change as messaging companies build out their services and provide more avenues for connecting brands, publishers, and advertisers with users.
In full, this report:
- Gives a high-level overview of the messaging market in the US by comparing total monthly active users for the top chat apps.
- Examines the user behavior of chat app users, specifically what makes them so attractive to brands, publishers, and advertisers.
- Identifies what distinguishes chat apps in the West from their counterparts in the East.
- Discusses the potentially lucrative avenues companies are pursuing to monetize their services.
- Offers key insights and implications for marketers as they consider interacting with users through these new platforms.
To get your copy of this invaluable guide, choose one of these options:
- Subscribe to an ALL-ACCESS Membership with BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report AND over 100 other expertly researched deep-dive reports, subscriptions to all of our daily newsletters, and much more. >> START A MEMBERSHIP
- Purchase the report and download it immediately from our research store. >> BUY THE REPORT
The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the future of messaging apps.
