Apps in Trauma and Emergency Surgery

BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, 2021

Background With the magnitude and severity of the COVID-19 pandemic, the usual face-to-face consultation within a clinical setting is no longer feasible. Thus, this led to the need for alternate means to provide adequate patient care for surgical patients. This is where the role of smartphones comes into play, in which it is thus of paramount importance. This research study aimed to assess the usefulness of smartphones in surgical practice during COVID-19 pandemic. Methods This cross-sectional study is based on a questionnaire distributed among surgeons in different levels of practice working at Kuwait governmental hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic. The questionnaire was developed via Google Docs to collect data for the current study. Results Out of 600 surgeons, 180 have responded to the questionnaire, giving a response rate of 30%. Of these, 42.8%, 85.5%, and 58.9% were aged between 35 and 44 years, were male, and Kuwaiti nationals, respectively. Almost all of the respondents...

BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, 2012

Background Smartphone usage has spread to many settings including that of healthcare with numerous potential and realised benefits. The ability to download custom-built software applications (apps) has created a new wealth of clinical resources available to healthcare staff, providing evidence-based decisional tools to reduce medical errors. Previous literature has examined how smartphones can be utilised by both medical student and doctor populations, to enhance educational and workplace activities, with the potential to improve overall patient care. However, this literature has not examined smartphone acceptance and patterns of medical app usage within the student and junior doctor populations. Methods An online survey of medical student and foundation level junior doctor cohorts was undertaken within one United Kingdom healthcare region. Participants were asked whether they owned a Smartphone and if they used apps on their Smartphones to support their education and practice activ...

Jmir mhealth and uhealth, 2023

Background: Health care professionals are increasingly using smartphones in clinical care. Smartphone use can affect patient quality of care and clinical outcomes. Objective: This scoping review aimed to describe how physicians use smartphones and mobile apps in clinical settings. Methods: We conducted a scoping review using the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology and reported the results according to PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews) guidelines. We used the following databases in our literature search: MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and gray literature for studies published since 2010. An additional search was also performed by scanning the reference lists of included studies. A narrative synthesis approach was used. Results: A total of 10 studies, published between 2016 and 2021, were included in this review. Of these studies, 8 used surveys and 2 used surveys with focus group study designs to explore smartphone use, its adoption, experience of using it, and views on the use of smartphones among physicians. There were studies with only general practitioners (n=3), studies with only specialists (n=3), and studies with both general practitioners and specialists (n=4). Physicians use smartphones and mobile apps for communication (n=9), clinical decision-making (n=7), drug compendium (n=7), medical education and training (n=7), maintaining health records (n=4), managing time (n=4), and monitoring patients (n=2) in clinical practice. The Medscape medical app was frequently used for information gathering. WhatsApp, a nonmedical app, was commonly used for physician-patient communication. The commonly reported barriers were lack of regulatory oversight, privacy concerns, and limited Wi-Fi or internet access. The commonly reported facilitator was convenience and having access to evidence-based medicine, clinical decision-making support, and a wide array of apps. Conclusions: Smartphones and mobile apps were used for communication, medical education and training, clinical decision-making, and drug compendia in most studies. Although the benefits of smartphones and mobile apps for physicians at work were promising, there were concerns about patient privacy and confidentiality. Legislation is urgently needed to protect the liability of health care professionals using smartphones.

BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, 2019

Background: As part of the mobile revolution, smartphone-based applications (apps) have become almost indispensable in today's information society. Consequently, the use of medical apps among healthcare professionals has increased heavily over the past years. As little is known on medical app use in day-today clinical practice in Austria, the present study aims at closing this knowledge gap by assessing respective prevalence, readiness, and concerns among Austrian practitioners. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional online survey among a sample of 151 Austrian doctors (mean age 45.0, SD 12.0, 55.0% females). We developed a German study questionnaire on the basis of the Practitioner Telehealth Readiness Assessment Tool (PRAT) to assess medical app use-related readiness and attitudes, and validated it using principal component analysis. Results: In our study, 74% of participants used medical apps on a daily basis, with clarity, ease of use, speed, and support in clinical routine mentioned as most important app features. However, the majority of participants perceived certain barriers to use medical apps. Younger participants used more medical apps, were more likely to use them during work, and yielded higher readiness scores. The most often used medical apps were Diagnosia and Embryotox (both 28.5%). Conclusions: Nowadays, medical apps serve as an important source of information for many doctors and are especially popular among younger physicians. The omnipresence of smartphones in the smocks of healthcare workers raised awareness for potential shortcomings regarding disruption of traditional face-to-face doctor-patient interaction among all healthcare stakeholders. This study's finding thus highlight the need for initiating a public discussion on legal and social frameworks to successfully integrate mobile apps into everyday clinical.

The Health Care Manager, 2015

Mobile technology has begun to change the landscape of the medical profession with more than two-thirds of physicians regularly using smart phones. Smartphones have allowed healthcare professionals and the general public to communicate more efficiently, collect data and facilitate the clinical decision making. The methodology for this study was a qualitative literature review following a systematic approach of the smartphone usage among physicians in hospitals. Fiftyone articles were selected for this study based on inclusion criteria. The findings were classified and described into seven categories: use of smartphone in obstetrics, pediatrics, surgery, internal medicine, radiology, and dermatology which were chosen based on the documented use of smartphone application in different healthcare practices. A last section of patient safety and issues with confidentiality is also described. This study suggest that smartphones have been playing an increasingly important role in healthcare. Medical professionals have become more dependent upon medical smartphone applications. However, concerns of patient safety and confidentiality will likely lead to increased oversight of mobile device use by regulatory agencies and accrediting bodies.

Smartphones evolve in a potential learning companion among students. The specific needs of medical education have brought in light, apps dedicated to medical school. Therefore, the impact that arises in academia attracted the focus of scientific world for further research. The aim of this paper is to identify the usage of medical apps among medical students, exploring their usage patterns in order to enhance their educational activities. For that purpose, 381 students were asked to fulfill a 16-item questionnaire. The respondents (300 students) constitute a 78.7% response rate, with a Cronbach’s α = 0.95. According to the survey, 93.6% (n: 281/300) of medical students own smartphones, 64.8% (n: 182/281) of them use Android devices and 17.1% (n: 48/281) iOS devices. The majority of students, that is 57.7% (n: 173/300) have downloaded 1 to 5 medical apps, whereas the number of students with more than 10 apps is significant lower. There is noteworthy to mention that a meaningful segment uses rarely or never the installed medical apps (59.3% and 36.7% respectively). The future development and use of medical apps to support both education and clinical practice, seems to at-tract the majority of the respondents.

International Emergency Nursing, 2014

Introduction: With the introduction of regional trauma networks in England, ambulance clinicians have been required to make triage decisions relating to severity of injury, and appropriate destination for the patient, which may require 'bypassing' the nearest Emergency Department. A 'Trauma Unit Bypass Tool' is utilised in this process. The Major Trauma Triage tool smartphone application (App) is a digital representation of a tool, available for clinicians to use on their smartphone. Prior to disseminating the application, validity and performance against the existing paper-based tool was explored. Methods: A case-based study using clinical scenarios was conducted. Scenarios, with appropriate triage decisions, were agreed by an expert panel. Ambulance clinicians were assigned to either the paperbased tool or smartphone app group and asked to make a triage decision using the available information. The positive predictive value (PPV) of each tool was calculated. Results: The PPV of the paper tool was 0.76 and 0.86 for the smartphone app. User comments were mainly positive for both tools with no negative comments relating to the smartphone app. Conclusion: The smartphone app version of the Trauma Unit Bypass Tool performs at least as well as the paper version and can be utilised safely by pre-hospital clinicians in supporting triage decisions relating to potential major trauma.

Journal of Medical Internet Research, 2020

Background The use of mobile devices in hospital care constantly increases. However, smartphones and tablets have not yet widely become official working equipment in medical care. Meanwhile, the parallel use of private and official devices in hospitals is common. Medical staff use smartphones and tablets in a growing number of ways. This mixture of devices and how they can be used is a challenge to persons in charge of defining strategies and rules for the usage of mobile devices in hospital care. Objective Therefore, we aimed to examine the status quo of physicians’ mobile device usage and concrete requirements and their future expectations of how mobile devices can be used. Methods We performed a web-based survey among physicians in 8 German university hospitals from June to October 2019. The online survey was forwarded by hospital management personnel to physicians from all departments involved in patient care at the local sites. Results A total of 303 physicians from almost all ...

Irish Journal of Medical Science, 2017

Introduction We conducted a study at two main centres for paediatric surgery in the Republic of Ireland, Temple Street Children's University Hospital (TSCUH) and Our Lady's Children's Hospital Crumlin (OLCHC). Aim The aim of the study was to assess doctors' opinions, frequency and methods of smartphone use in clinical practice. Methods Doctors (n = 265) at the two hospitals were invited to complete a 12-item survey. Descriptive statistics were calculated accordingly. Results Almost 50% (132/256) responded; 98.4% owned a smartphone and 76% owned an iPhone. Seventy-nine percent used medical apps and 59% used the OLCHC formulary. Ninety-seven percent used smartphones for inter-team communication with 73.5% (n = 97) using WhatsApp. Smartphone camera was used by 57% for clinical photos and 41% for photos of radiological imaging. Only 42% reported obtaining consent for smartphone camera use from patients or guardians. Ninety-two percent either 'strongly agreed' or 'agreed' that smartphones positively impact their practice. Conclusion Smartphone usage is universal among healthcare professionals and their influence is growing in patient care.

BMJ Open, 2016

Objectives: To explore how a medical textbook app ('iDoc') supports newly qualified doctors in providing high-quality patient care. Design: The iDoc project, funded by the Wales Deanery, provides new doctors with an app which gives access to key medical textbooks. Participants' submitted case reports describing self-reported accounts of specific instances of app use. The size of the data set enabled analysis of a subsample of 'complex' case reports. Of the 568 case reports submitted by Foundation Year 1s (F1s)/Year 2s (F2s), 142 (25%) detailed instances of diagnostic decisionmaking and were identified as 'complex'. We analysed these data against the Quality Improvement (QI) Framework using thematic content analysis.