Dear HIFA colleagues,
Topic 1: How can we maximise the positive aspects of informal mobile phone use (flexibility, convenience etc.)?
Background: https://www.hifa.org/news/mhealth-innovate-exploring-healthcare-workers-...
Our discussion to date, together with our systematic review and our primary research in Uganda all indicate there are positive and negative aspects to informal mobile phone use.
We are now looking to the future to discuss what can be done to maximise the benefits and minimise the disadvantages of informal mobile phone use.
Our current definition of informal mobile phone use is: 'Healthcare workers’ use of mobile phones to support their work, using approaches that are initiated by the healthcare workers themselves and that are initially not standardized, regulated or endorsed by the health system or organization to which they belong.’ In practice, we are talking primarily about how health workers use their personal mobile phones for work purposes.
Below are some findings from our 12-page informal review https://zenodo.org/records/15011500
'Healthcare workers in many countries worldwide describe how this can help them work more efficiently and be more responsive to patients’ and colleagues needs...
'They use their personal phones to:
- seek advice and support from other healthcare workers regarding patient management, for instance, when making referrals and during clinical emergencies
- communicate with patients and their families, particularly in low- and middle-income countries
- co-ordinate, oversee and manage other healthcare workers’ work, send reports to supervisors and share practical information such as staffing schedules...
'Informal mobile phone use can increase efficiency and improve the quality of care
Healthcare workers worldwide report that the use of their personal mobile phones makes it easier and faster to communicate with patients and colleagues, prevents unnecessary journeys, and can lead to better quality care.
Healthcare workers, mainly in low and middle-income countries, also describe how the exchange of personal phone numbers allows patients to contact healthcare workers who are already known to them and enables bidirectional communication. In contrast, formal systems tend to be unidirectional and do not include ways of contacting specific healthcare workers'
How can the above benefits be maximised?
We look forward to your comments. These will contribute to a policy dialogue at WHO headquarters, Geneva, on 6 June 2025.
Many thanks, 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