mHEALTH-INNOVATE (37) How do you use your phone to communicate with colleagues, patients and families? (5) Patient confidentiality (2)

24 April, 2022

I am coming late to this interesting discussion. On reading the first question, "How do you use your phone to communicate with colleagues, patients and families?", one cannot help going back memory lane to yester years when colleague to colleague communication was 100% analogue. It seemed that there was no better alternative. Then came the revolution in ICT including mobile phones and the internet and cyber. Today even where there is a landline, chances are that most health workers would reach to their pockets for their mobile phone (smart or not) to communicate with colleagues. Mobile phones are more user-friendly, convenient, and fashionable, even though you must be able to afford the data and power source to charge the battery. (but with landlines you paid for the phone and the lines too). Talking to patients and families is the same, one reaches for the mobile phone for all the reasons given above. As the phones have become 'smart' and have literally become hand-held personal computers, it has become more the tool to turn to, because apart from talking, one can text, email, use social media, conduct video communication with colleagues, patients and families. Its storage space can be endless and easily retrieved, when that is necessary.

All these advantages also make using the mobile phone for communication, risky, particularly when it has to do with confidentiality, security of stored messages and voice conversations. But the health workers and patients and families are affected if the phone is hacked or breached.

Therefore, I use mobile phone as a preferred device when I communicate with colleagues, patients and families, but I am very conscious of the risk to confidentiality, and as a result, I limit what I discuss on phone and I subscribe to anti virus and other anti hacking tools to protect patients and family information.

Joseph Ana

Prof Joseph Ana

Lead Senior Fellow/ medical consultant.

Africa Center for Clinical Governance Research &

Patient Safety (ACCGR&PS)

P: +234 (0) 8063600642

E: info@hri-global.org

8 Amaku Street, State Housing & 20 Eta Agbor Road,

Calabar, Nigeria.

www.hri-global.org

HIFA profile: Joseph Ana is the Lead Consultant and Trainer at the Africa Centre for Clinical Governance Research and Patient Safety in Calabar, Nigeria, established by HRI Global (former HRIWA). In 2015 he won the NMA Award of Excellence for establishing 12-Pillar Clinical Governance, Quality and Safety initiative in Nigeria. He has been the pioneer Chairman of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) National Committee on Clinical Governance and Research since 2012. He is also Chairman of the Quality & Performance subcommittee of the Technical Working Group for the implementation of the Nigeria Health Act. He is a pioneer Trustee-Director of the NMF (Nigerian Medical Forum) which took the BMJ to West Africa in 1995. He is particularly interested in strengthening health systems for quality and safety in LMICs. He has written Five books on the 12-Pillar Clinical Governance for LMICs, including a TOOLS for Implementation. He established the Department of Clinical Governance, Servicom & e-health in the Cross River State Ministry of Health, Nigeria in 2007. Website: www.hri-global.org. Joseph is a member of the HIFA Steering Group and the HIFA working group on Community Health Workers.

Website: www.hri-global.com Joseph is a member of the HIFA Steering Group and the HIFA working group on Community Health Workers.

http://www.hifa.org/support/members/joseph-0

http://www.hifa.org/people/steering-group

Email: info@hri-global.org and jneana@yahoo.co.uk