Hi Pratap and colleagues,
Thanks for your point about some 'feature' phones having 'smartphone' functions. The edges between the two are blurred.
"Smartphone ownership does not mean that healthcare workers can or are able to use their phones for healthcare purposes like those your post/article talks about (e.g. use as a cardiac monitor)."
Yes, I think you refer both to whether the function is possible on any given smartphone, and if so, whether the health worker knows how to use it? The original quote about cardiac monitor was simply for the health worker to take a photo of the trace "Some doctors want to see the patient’s heart rate and rhythm through the cardiac monitor... I can do that by taking a picture of the cardiac monitor screen and sending the image [to the doctors]" That said, additional devices are available that can record ECG traces on a smartphone.
If we look again at the seven uses of mobile phones reported by health workers in our study:
1. seeking advice and support from colleagues while handling patients
2. managing referrals and emergencies
3. supervising other healthcare workers, sending reports and sharing practical information
4. retrieving, recording and storing patient information
5. taking and sharing photos, for instance of x-rays and test results
6. searching for information online
7. communicating with patients [and their families]
Functions 1,2,7 and (to some extent) 3 and 4 can be done with basic feature phones. The availability of smartphones facilitates all these five functions and also enables 5 and 6.
"While smartphone availability to healthcare workers is an important step, it tends to hide many important factors that determine the use of smartphones (personal or shared) for healthcare. My personal feeling is that these are the systemic, “wicked" problems (some broadly related to equity and access to technology, and others specific to the use of technology in health) that the health tech community should focus on."
Yes, what do you feel are the most important factors to focus on?
My initial thought is that the world is inevitably moving towards a future where every health worker will have a smartphone. All smartphones share basic characteristics, including all of the above seven functions. I would think the focus could be on facilitating the availability and use of smartphones for health workers, together with guidance on how to use them to support quality of care (and guidance on how to minimise risk of breaches of confidentiality).
These discussions on HIFA are feeding into a meeting at WHO headquarters on 6 June, where the full results of the project will be discussed. One way forward could be for WHO to develop international guidance that could then be adapted for use by each Member State. I look forward to learning more from you and others.
Best wishes, Neil
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org