Dear Elisabeth,
Thank you for your message.
https://www.hifa.org/dgroups-rss/mhealth-innovate-53-introduction-elisab...
In the meantime I have had the pleasure to welcome you onto the HIFA MHEALTH-INNOVATE working group [ https://www.hifa.org/support/members/elisabeth-tshiama ], where you are kindly taking responsibility to stimulate discussion on our sister forum HIFA-French around our five guiding questions:
1. Do you use a mobile phone to help you in your work? How do you use it?
2. How do you use your phone to communicate with colleagues, patients and families?
3. How do you use your phone for other work-related purposes? (eg searching for healthcare information and guidance, tracking supplies, referring patients...)
4. Can you give any examples of *informal* use of mobile phones by health workers? (ie uses of mobile phones that have not been directed by the employer, but have been initiated, adapted or developed by health workers themselves)
5. How can the informal use of mobile phones be improved to strengthen healthcare?
In your introduction you said: "I am Elisabeth Tshiama Mukendi, a medical doctor from the Democratic Republic of Congo since 2019... I had sometimes to use my phone in my practice to share information about my patients; sometimes through medical whatsapp groups, or mails for advice and process. And most of the time it helped to resolve the problem."
Please can you say a bit more about 'medical whatsapp groups'. Who do you communicate with (are they people with whom you work? other health professionals in a national network?). And do you use these groups mainly to seek clinical guidance, or for other purposes?
With thanks, Neil
Neil Pakenham-Walsh, Global Coordinator HIFA, www.hifa.org neil@hifa.org
Working in official relations with WHO
