Developing a successful medical team using WhatsApp(TM) and social media (1 year follow­ up)

Abstract

Social media and internet availability on more and more affordable smartphones encourage doctors to communicate more across specialties, to consult and offer realtime insights on cases, dramatically shortening the time until an investigation is prescribed or a therapeutic decision is made. Following­up a small study regarding resident doctors in Clinic of Pulmonary Diseases in Iasi and their use of WhatsAppO messaging smartphone app we extended our questionnaire to doctors and nurses from a wider range of age, specialization and social media messaging­app preference using the same 3 items questionnaire as previously presented (ERJ 52, suppl 62). Our result showed that 85% of doctors and nurses use social media to communicate professionally when caring a patient with complex pathology. 68% of doctors over 45 years prefer telephone calls while 32% send images and tests results via social media apps to consult with colleagues from other speciality. 91% of doctors between 25 and 45 years use social media apps (preferably WhatsApp(TM)) to ask for other colleagues opinion but only 26% of nurses use social media to ask for indications when communicating with doctors. Although social media messaging apps like WhatsApp(TM), which seems to be preferred in professional communications between doctors and nurses, are still in a “grey­area”, the need for a dedicated medical app to fulfil this clear need of rapid consultations while preserving patient sensitive data, seems clear and neccessary.