JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

There is a rapid uptake of mobile-enabled technologies in lower- and upper- middle-income countries because of its portability, ability to reduce or enhance mobility and facilitation of communication. However, there is limited empirical evidence on the usefulness of mobile health (mHealth) information and communication technologies (ICTs) to address time and location constraints associated with the work activities of healthcare professionals at points-of-care to enhance service delivery in hospital settings.

Objective:

The objective of this paper was to explore opportunities for integrating mHealth ICTs into the work activities of healthcare professionals at points-of-care in clinical settings of hospitals in Sub-Saharan Africa. Thus, the research question was “How can mHealth ICTs be integrated into the work activities of healthcare professionals at points-of-care in hospital settings?”

Methods:

A qualitative approach was adopted to understand the work activities and at what point mHealth ICTs could be integrated to support healthcare professionals. The techniques of inquiry were semi-structured interviews and co-design activities. These techniques were used to engage and ensure participation of frontline end users to determine how mHealth ICTs could be integrated into the points-of-care in hospital settings. Purposive and snowball sampling techniques were used to select the tertiary hospitals and participants for this study from South Africa and Nigeria. A total of 21 participants including doctors, nurses and hospital managers were engaged. Ethical clearance was granted by the University research committee and the respective hospitals. The data collected was sorted using the thematic analysis and the Activity analysis and development (ActAD) model to interpret the data.

Results:

The findings show that mHealth ICTs are suitable at the points where: healthcare professionals consult with patients in the hospital clinics; remote communication is needed; management of referrals and report writing are required. It was inferred that mHealth ICTs could be negatively disruptive and some participants perceived the use of mobile devices while engaging with patients as unprofessional. These findings were informed by outcomes of the interplay between human attributes and technology capabilities during transformation of the motives of work activity into the intended goal, which is enhanced service delivery

Conclusions:

The opportunities to integrate mHealth ICTs into clinical settings depends on the inefficiencies of interaction moments experienced by healthcare professionals at points-of-care during patient consultation, remote communication, referrals and report writing. Thus, the timeliness of mHealth ICTs to address constraints experienced by healthcare professionals’ during work activities should take into consideration the type of work activity, the contextual enabling or inhibiting factors that may result in contradictions and technology features. This study contributes towards the design of mHealth ICTs by industry vendors and its usability evaluation of work activity outcomes carried out by healthcare professionals.