The Place of Smartphone Applications in Emergency Medicine

Abstract

Medical mobile applications help improve patient care quality, reduce medical errors, and help physicians make faster, evidence-based decisions in patient care, follow-up and rehabilitation. In this study, it was aimed to determine the usage level of smart phone applications among emergency physicians, to investigate the effects of these applications on diagnosis and treatment, to examine their benefits, to determine the expectations regarding these applications, and to raise awareness on ethical issues. Between 02/25/2018 and 03/25/2018 emergency medicine residents in many provinces of Turkey, emergency medicine specialists, were investigated smartphone app to be used in practice with academics. A statistically significant difference was found between emergency medicine experience and mobile application use (p: 0.020). Most of the physicians surveyed had started using their first mobile apps 4 years ago. It was determined that most of the participants using mobile applications in the medical field were using them as a clinical decision tool. It was observed that those with visual expressions were mostly preferred in the use of mobile applications in the medical field (63.1%). It was determined that 75% of the participants found instant messaging applications useful in the professional field. The biggest problem identified in terms of medical ethics of mobile medical applications; was the thought of a violation of patient privacy. Although technological devices make our lives easier in many ways, examination is of great importance in the patient-physician relationship. Medical mobile applications should be prepared professionally and the content quality should be checked by experts. Due to the nature of current research, it is inevitable that technologies become outdated. There is a need for more comprehensive and up-to-date studies on this subject that appeal to large audiences. © 2022 Ondokuz Mayis Universitesi. All rights reserved.