JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Smartphone and medical applications have seen a surge in popularity in recent years which has also been reflected in the healthcare system. Despite increased reliance amongst clinicians however, limited research has been conducted on the uptake and impact of smartphone usage in the medical practice especially outside the Western world.

Objective:

This study aims to identify the usage of smartphones and medical apps by doctors in the clinical setting in two culturally distinct countries, King Hamad University Hospital (KHUH), Bahrain and Queen Mary Hospital (QMH), Hong Kong.

Methods:

A cross-sectional study was conducted where doctors in both hospitals were asked to take part in a 15-item online survey. The questions were categorized into the following groups: the demographics of the study population, ownership and main use of smartphones, the number and names of medical apps currently owned, rating usage of smartphones for medical purposes, time spent on a smartphone related to clinical use, clinical reliance of smartphones, and views on further integration of smartphones. The results were then tabulated and analyzed using SPSS Statistics 25 for Mac (IBM, USA).

Results:

A total of 200 doctors were surveyed with a total of 99% (99/100) of the doctors owning a smartphone in both KHUH and QMH. 57.6% (57/99) and 54.5% (54/99) of the doctors from KHUH and QMH respectively identified communication as their main use of smartphones in the clinical setting (P= .004). Doctors from KHUH were likely to spend more time on medical apps than doctors from QMH (P = .002). According to the overall result of both the hospitals, 47.8% (32/67) of the junior doctors claimed high reliance on smartphones whereas only 32.3% (41/127) of the seniors said the same (P = .03). 78% (78/100) and 69% (69/100) of doctors in KHUH and QMH either strongly agreed or agreed that smartphones need to be integrated into the clinical setting. In terms of preferences for future apps, 48% and 56% of the doctors in KHUH and QMH respectively, agreed that more medical applications need to be created in order to support smartphone use in the clinical setting.

Conclusions:

These results suggest a substantial acceptance of smartphone technology by doctors in clinical settings. This brings up the need to establish policies to integrate this technology officially in accordance with ethical guidelines. With more emphasis placed on creating medical applications that aid healthcare professionals in attaining their information from accurate sources and also regulate a system to monitor the usage of mobile devices within hospitals to prevent the breach of patient privacy and confidentiality.