[Note: Since 2022 HIFA is supporting mHEALTH-INNOVATE, an international research consortium exploring how health workers use their personal mobile phones to support their work. HIFA is the main platform for sharing experience and expertise on this topic. Your inputs over the coming days and weeks are crucial and will feed into high-level policy discussions at WHO. See https://www.hifa.org/mhealth ]
Our systematic review [ https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD015705.pub2/... ] shows that healthcare workers across the world are using their personal mobile phones to plug gaps in the healthcare system. In our study from Uganda, one participant describes the following situation:
“Even if the facility has a landline, these are limited in what they can do. They cannot take pictures for example. Sometimes they need to take a picture of the laboratory results […], so what they do, which is quicker, they take a picture of the results of this patient, and send it to a doctor in the referral hospital where they are sending the patient. Sometimes this helps that by the time the patient arrives there, the other doctor already knows what needs to be done” (Namaganda 2024).
For many healthcare workers this has become a normal part of work, and healthcare workers may feel pressure or expectations to use their own phones. Healthcare workers are also driven by feelings of obligation towards their colleagues and their patients. In a study from Ghana, one Community Health Nurse says the following:
"You cannot be in the system without saying that you don’t want to use your own credit to call somebody. It is part of our work … you know that you are there to save lives so whatever you will do to save lives, you don’t care about [the cost of airtime]” (Abane 2021, in Glenton 2024).
QUESTION: In your healthcare system, do you experience similar gaps to those described in Ghana, Uganda and elsewhere that might drive healthcare workers to use mobile phones informally? To what extent do healthcare workers in your setting feel that the informal use of their personal mobile phone is expected of them? As in the study from Ghana, are they driven by feelings of obligation towards colleagues and patients? Do their supervisors know that informal use is going on and what is their reaction to this practice?
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