Physician Perceptions of Surveillance: Wearables, Apps, and Bots for COVID-19

Objective To characterize the global physician community’s opinions on the use of digital tools for COVID-19 public health surveillance and self-surveillance. Methods Cross-sectional, random, stratified survey done on Sermo, a physician networking platform, between September 9-15, 2020. We aimed to sample 1,000 physicians divided among the USA, EU, and rest of the world. The survey questioned physicians on the risk-benefit ratio of digital tools, as well as matters of data privacy and trust. Results The survey was completed by 1004 physicians with a mean (SD) age of 49.14 (12) years. Enthusiasm was highest for self-monitoring smart watches (66%) and contact tracing apps (66%) and slightly lower (48-56%) for other tools. Trust was highest for health providers (68%) and lowest for technology companies (30%). Most respondents (69.8%) felt that loosening privacy standards to fight the pandemic would lead to misuse of privacy in the future. Conclusion The survey provides foundational insights about how physicians think of surveillance. Collaborations between public health and technology researchers to strengthen evidence of effectiveness and build public trust may be useful.