Downloaded from emj.bmj.com on September 5, 2014 - Published by group.bmj.com
EMJ Online First, published on April 16, 2014 as 10.1136/emermed-2014-203809 PostScript
LETTER
Mobile apps: are we culturally out of signal? Dear Editor, As an avid user of mobile apps currently working in Emergency Medicine, I enjoyed reading the article by Lin et al1 (and have since downloaded a couple of apps!). I have found mobile apps are a useful adjunct to my work in the emergency department, most commonly for checking drug doses using the British National Formulary app or using a Snellen Chart app in a departmental bay. I do think, however, if mobile apps are to be integrated into clinical practice, that there needs to be a regulatory and cultural revolution. Authoritative signs dictating ‘do not use your mobile phone’ litter many hospitals and, in my opinion, have contributed to patients challenging my use of them. Additionally, there is the cultural
Emerg Med J MonthArticle 2014 Vol 0author No 0 Copyright
perception that if you are ‘checking your phone’ you are probably on a social media site when in actual fact you could well be checking the hospital’s antibiotic guidelines for a septic patient. From a regulatory point of view, I think at the moment we need to be cautious when using these apps. Very few of these have approval of regulatory bodies such as the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in the case of the UK. If we are using these apps to diagnose and manage patients, we need to view them as much of a medical device as a pulse oximeter. Emergency Medicine is incredibly varied and, for that reason, is probably the most ideal specialty to embrace mobile apps. I cannot see a future for the specialty without mobile apps, but I think we need to be careful and open about using them.
of Medical Education, The University of Sheffield, Beech Hill Road Sheffield, UK, S10 2RX; [email protected] Competing interests None. Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed. To cite Boxall NE. Emerg Med J Published Online First: [ please include Day Month Year] doi:10.1136/ emermed-2014-203809 Accepted 19 March 2014
▸ http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/emermed-2014-203607 Emerg Med J 2014;0:1. doi:10.1136/emermed-2014-203809
REFERENCE 1
Lim M, Rezaie S, Husain I. Top 10 mobile apps in Emergency Medicine. Emerg Med J 2014:31:432–3.
Nicholas E Boxall Correspondence to Nicholas E Boxall, Academic Unit
(or their employer) 2014. Produced by BMJ Publishing Group Ltd under licence.
1
Downloaded from emj.bmj.com on September 5, 2014 - Published by group.bmj.com
Mobile apps: are we culturally out of signal? Nicholas E Boxall Emerg Med J published online April 16, 2014
doi: 10.1136/emermed-2014-203809
Updated information and services can be found at: http://emj.bmj.com/content/early/2014/04/16/emermed-2014-203809.full.html
These include:
P
EMJ Online First, published on April 16, 2014 as 10.1136/emermed-2014-203809 PostScript
LETTER
Mobile apps: are we culturally out of signal? Dear Editor, As an avid user of mobile apps currently working in Emergency Medicine, I enjoyed reading the article by Lin et al1 (and have since downloaded a couple of apps!). I have found mobile apps are a useful adjunct to my work in the emergency department, most commonly for checking drug doses using the British National Formulary app or using a Snellen Chart app in a departmental bay. I do think, however, if mobile apps are to be integrated into clinical practice, that there needs to be a regulatory and cultural revolution. Authoritative signs dictating ‘do not use your mobile phone’ litter many hospitals and, in my opinion, have contributed to patients challenging my use of them. Additionally, there is the cultural
Emerg Med J MonthArticle 2014 Vol 0author No 0 Copyright
perception that if you are ‘checking your phone’ you are probably on a social media site when in actual fact you could well be checking the hospital’s antibiotic guidelines for a septic patient. From a regulatory point of view, I think at the moment we need to be cautious when using these apps. Very few of these have approval of regulatory bodies such as the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in the case of the UK. If we are using these apps to diagnose and manage patients, we need to view them as much of a medical device as a pulse oximeter. Emergency Medicine is incredibly varied and, for that reason, is probably the most ideal specialty to embrace mobile apps. I cannot see a future for the specialty without mobile apps, but I think we need to be careful and open about using them.
of Medical Education, The University of Sheffield, Beech Hill Road Sheffield, UK, S10 2RX; [email protected] Competing interests None. Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed. To cite Boxall NE. Emerg Med J Published Online First: [ please include Day Month Year] doi:10.1136/ emermed-2014-203809 Accepted 19 March 2014
▸ http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/emermed-2014-203607 Emerg Med J 2014;0:1. doi:10.1136/emermed-2014-203809
REFERENCE 1
Lim M, Rezaie S, Husain I. Top 10 mobile apps in Emergency Medicine. Emerg Med J 2014:31:432–3.
Nicholas E Boxall Correspondence to Nicholas E Boxall, Academic Unit
(or their employer) 2014. Produced by BMJ Publishing Group Ltd under licence.
1
Downloaded from emj.bmj.com on September 5, 2014 - Published by group.bmj.com
Mobile apps: are we culturally out of signal? Nicholas E Boxall Emerg Med J published online April 16, 2014
doi: 10.1136/emermed-2014-203809
Updated information and services can be found at: http://emj.bmj.com/content/early/2014/04/16/emermed-2014-203809.full.html
These include:
P
