A survey on the physicians' and pharmacists' use of handheld devices and mobile medical apps for drug information / Denlee David Lee

Introduction: Recently there is an increase in the use and popularity of handheld devices such as smartphones, tablet computers and PDAs among physicians and pharmacists. Previous study shows that they also use handheld devices and mobile medical apps to search for drug information.
Objective: This study aim to investigate the physicians' and pharmacists' use of handheld devices and mobile medical apps for drug information.
Method: A structured validated questionnaire that consists of 5 sections is distributed to the practising physicians and pharmacists including the medical and pharmacy lecturers.
Result: 184 (94.8 %) of respondents claimed to use handheld electronic device at work site and 163 (84.0%) of them use handheld devices to search for drug information. Dosage recommendations and ADRs are the most common DI that they looking for. Medscape® and Micromedex® are the most popular medical apps among the respondents. The recommended app for clinical update is Medscape®.
Conclusion: The use of handheld devices and mobile medical apps for drug information among physicians and pharmacists in Malaysia are common. The adoption of medical apps in clinical practice has a bright future especially for improvement of our healthcare sector.