Smartphones and Educational Apps Use Among Medical Students of a Smart University Campus

Background: Smartphones and medical education apps are popular with and are widely used by medical students to facilitate peer interactions, communication and collaboration in addition to their “learn anywhere” advantage. Smartphone use by medical students has not been studied in the English-speaking Caribbean. Study objectives were to assess in preclinical students attending the University of the West Indies in Barbados, smartphone ownership, usage and attitudes toward use in medical education.Methods: First and second year preclinical medical students completed a self-administered paper-based questionnaire during the 2018–2019 academic year. Survey questions included sections on smartphone ownership, medical apps used, phone usage for education related tasks, and the perception on the usefulness of smartphones in medical education.Results: Of 112 participants (response rate 67.4%), 43% considered using the smartphone for medical education when acquiring it but 92% were currently using it for this purpose, with 80.3% (p < 0.01) specifically using it for learning anatomy. The majority of the students felt that the use of smartphones would improve their educational experiences (89.1%) (p < 0.01), be beneficial to medical faculty for teaching (84.8%) (p < 0.01), and could be more effectively used in medical education (50.9%) (p < 0.01). For information resources students used Medscape (67.9%) and Mayo Clinic (57.1%) and the most frequently used search engine was Google (95.5%). Most students (67.9%) used medical apps and 79.5% would buy more useful apps provided they were affordable. The popular apps were: ‘Teach me Anatomy’ (11.9%), ‘UpToDate’ (10.3%) and ‘Medscape’ (8.8%). Most students (66.1%) felt a Smart Campus should ensure e-learning platforms were compatible with smartphones and university policies regarding smartphone usage for academic purposes were needed.Conclusion: Findings show that smartphones and related medical education apps are widely used by medical students and improve their educational experiences. Universities should develop a policy regarding smartphone usage for academic purposes.

Medical apps and bug blocking

Medical apps are very popular, but they are as prone to bugs as any other digital system. This chapter gives some typical examples and begins to suggest solutions. Like all digital healthcare, apps could be designed to block bugs and avoid the harms that follow.

Contribution of the smartphone in medical practice

Purpose to determine the place of the smartphone by evaluating the possession and the use of medical applications in the practice of the professionals at the Mohamed VI University Hospital of Marrakech and hospital “Moulay Youssef Rabat” This is a prospective descriptive and mono-centric analytical study on health professionals working or performing their training at hospital structures during the 6 months of the study using a smartphone. Our study took place over a period of 6 months, from August 1, 2018 to January 31, 2019, is carried out on two sites. Within the Moulay Youssef Hospital Rabat CHR, Hospital mother and child Mohamed VI Hospital Marrakech hospital. A clear predominance of female 131 (65%) , with a sex ratio F / H of 0.51.with an average age of 34.4 years, with extreme ages between 60 and 18 years. We found that 149 (74.5%) were hospital professionals, 86 (43%) were medical students, 191 (95.57%) used French as their main language. - 142 (71%) use a smartphone and 125 (62.5%) use it in the medical prescription. Of the 200 professionals, 81% were convinced of the benefit of using Smartphones. The overflow of professional boundaries was highlighted as a disadvantage by 47% of the professionals.130 (65%) want more APPS communications and more than 50% were willing to pay between 50 and 200 MAD for medical APPS. In our study There is a statistically significant linear correlation between the age and the number of smartphone users during these 6 months (p = 0.023).There is a statistically significant linear correlation between professional status and number of smartphone uses during these 6months (p <0.001). Our study joins the data of the literature with an average of the number of use during these 6 months which is not statistically different according to the sex (p = 0.27). There is a statistically significant linear correlation between the average number of smartphone uses for medical purposes and the number of Smartphone usage during these 6 months (p <0.001). In our study, the average number of uses during these 6months is statistically different depending on the professionals we judge that it is beneficial (p = <0.01). The smartphone is a real tool in the practice of health professionals for optimal care of the patient. It would be interesting to develop formal assessment strategies and training in these medical applications for use with confidence in our context.

Understanding Data Collection Mechanisms Used by Health and Wellness Applications (Preprint)

UNSTRUCTURED Our objective is to better understand health-related data collection across different mHealth app categories. This would help in developing a health domain model for mHealth apps to facilitate app development and data sharing between these apps to improve user experience and reduce redundancy in data collection. We identified app categories listed in a curated library which was then used to explore the Google Play Store for health/medical apps that were then filtered using our inclusion criteria. We downloaded and analysed these apps using a script we developed around the popular AndroGuard tool. We analysed the use of Bluetooth peripherals and built-in sensors to understand how a given app collects/generates health data. We retrieved 3,251 applications meeting our criteria, and our analysis showed that only 10.7% of these apps requested permission for Bluetooth access. We found 50.9% of the Bluetooth Service UUIDs to be known in these apps, with the remainder being vendor specific. The most common health-related services using the known UUIDs were Heart Rate, Glucose and Body Composition. App permissions show the most used device module/sensor to be the camera (20.57%), closely followed by GPS (18.39%). Our findings are consistent with previous studies in that not many health apps were found to use built-in sensors or peripherals for collecting health data. The use of more peripherals and automated data collection along with integration with other apps could increase usability and convenience which would eventually also improve user experience and data reliability.

Technical Innovations in Pneumology: E-Health, Screening, Diagnostics, and Therapy

At the 2020 “Luftschlösser” (castles in the air) conference, experts from a wide range of pneumological fields discussed technical innovations in pneumology, which can be seen in many different areas of the field, including e-health, screening, diagnostics, and therapy. They contribute to substantial advancements ranging from the innovative use of diagnostic tools to novel treatments for chronic lung diseases. Artificial intelligence enables broader screening, which can be expected to have beneficial effects on disease progression and overall prognosis. There is still a high demand for clinical trials to investigate the usefulness and risk-benefit ratio. Open questions remain especially about the quality and utility of medical apps in an inadequately regulated market. This article weighs the pros and cons of technical innovations in specific subspecialties of pneumology based on the lively exchange of ideas among various pneumological experts.