A survey of mHealth use from a physician perspective in paediatric emergency care in the UK and Ireland

Jahn, Haiko Kurt; Jahn, Ingo Henry Johannes; Behringer, Wilhelm; Lyttle, Mark D.; Roland, Damian

Abstract

Abstract: There has been a drive towards increased digitalisation in healthcare. The aim was to provide a snapshot of current apps, instant messaging, and smartphone photography use in paediatric emergency care. A web-based self-report questionnaire was performed. Individual physicians working in paediatric emergency care recorded their personal practice. One hundred ninety-eight medical doctors completed the survey. Eight percent of respondents had access to institutional mobile devices to run medical apps. Eighty-six percent of respondents used medical apps on their personal mobile device, with 78% using Apple iOS devices. Forty-seven percent of respondents used formulary apps daily. Forty-nine percent of respondents had between 1–5 medical apps on their personal mobile device. Respondents who used medical apps had a total of 845 medical apps installed on their personal device, accounted for by 56 specific apps. The British National Formulary (BNF/BNFc) app was installed on the personal mobile device of 96% of respondents that use medical apps. Forty percent of respondents had patient confidentiality concerns when using medical apps. Thirty-eight percent of respondents have used consumer instant messaging services, 6% secure specialist messaging services, and 29% smartphone photography when seeking patient management advice. Conclusion: App use on the personal mobile devices, in the absence of access to institutional devices, was widespread, especially the use of a national formulary app. Instant messaging and smartphone photography were less common. A strategic decision has to be made to either provide staff with institutional devices or use software solutions to address data governance concerns when using personal devices.
What is Known:
• mHealth use by junior doctors and medical students is widespread.
• Clinicians’ use of instant messaging apps such as WhatsApp is the widespread in the UK and Ireland, in the absence of alternatives.W

What is New:
• Personal mobile device use was widespread in the absence of alternatives, with the British National Formulary nearly universally downloaded to physicians’ personal mobile devices.
• A third of respondents used instant messaging and smartphone photography on their personal mobile device when seeking patient management advice from other teams in the absence of alternatives.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 10, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Mar 25, 2021
• Publication Date: 2021-08
• Deposit Date: Mar 31, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 8, 2021
• Journal: European Journal of Pediatrics
• Print ISSN: 0340-6199
• Electronic ISSN: 1432-1076
• Publisher: Springer (part of Springer Nature)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 180
• Pages: 2409–2418
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-021-04023-0
• Keywords: Pediatrics, Perinatology, and Child Health
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/7243719
• Additional Information: Received: 8 September 2020; Revised: 5 March 2021; Accepted: 10 March 2021; First Online: 25 March 2021; : ; : This survey accessed clinicians via a research collaborative to assess their individual practice and therefore did not require formal ethics review according to the Framework for Health and Social Care Research (UK).; : Consent was implied by participation; : N/A; : The authors declare no competing interests.