I agree with Josephine and Richard that healthcare providers and their patients would benefit from training in privacy and consent issues. This is equally relevant whether they are using work phones or their own private phones. At the same time, healthcare providers need practical ways of implementing what they learn in this training. For instance, do they have access to systems that allow them to collect and store information in ways that protect patient privacy and that can be used on their own personal phones, including when they have no network coverage? These systems probably exist but need to be made available. An equally important question is whether we can ‘informally’ expect healthcare providers to use and pay for their own phones but also ‘formally’ demand that they use these phones in specific ways to protect patient privacy? It seems to me that any requirements about healthcare providers’ phone-based behaviour need to go hand in hand with some sort of formalization of their personal phone use, for instance through a “Bring Your Own Device” approach where they are also compensated for their phones expenses. Do others have experience of these types of approaches?
Best wishes, Claire
HIFA profile: Claire Glenton is professor of evidence-based practice at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences and a researcher at Cochrane Norway. Claire has a particular interest in systematic review methodology, including methods for disseminating the results of systematic reviews and methods for synthesising qualitative research. She regularly serves as technical advisor on World Health Organization guidelines. She also co-coordinates the GRADE-CERQual Project Group. She is one of the principal investigators of the mHealth-Innovate project, looking at informal use of mobile phones by health workers. https://www.hifa.org/support/members/claire-1 Email: Claire.Glenton AT hvl.no