Heart rate-tracking wearable

Health executives have already seen the benefits of patient-generated data, according to an Accenture survey of 601 doctors, 1,000 consumers, and 101 healthcare executives.

Some 73 percent of execs have seen positive return on investment from using technologies like wearables that track a patient's fitness and vital signs.

Accenture found that 85 percent of physicians believe wearables improve patients' engagement with their own health. Some 76 percent of patients said that wearables have the potential to help them manage and improve their health.

“We’re entering an era of personalized healthcare where patients expect to have a meaningful and convenient individual health experience, both virtually and in-person,” Accenture's health business lead Kaveh Safavi said in a statement. "The advent of real-time patient data, smarter technologies and individualized services will help health providers break from their traditional business models and provide outcome-focused services for individuals."

The survey also found that 84 percent of healthcare executives predict, within the next three years, that the healthcare industry will need to focus as much on training machines, including algorithms, intelligent software, and machine learning, as they do on training people. And 83 of healthcare executives percent believe that providers will need to start managing these machines in addition to their employees as a result of the increase in clinical data.

“As the digital revolution gains momentum, doctors and clinicians will use machines to augment human labor, personalize care, and manage more complex tasks,” Safavi said. “The digital revolution is also creating a data goldmine that can spark medical breakthroughs and improve individualized treatment plans.”

Some 41 percent of health executives said their data volume grew more than 50 percent last year. Approximately 59 percent of executives said they use rule-based algorithms, 52 percent use machine learning, 49 percent use intelligent agents, and 45 percent use predictive analytics.