Exploring perceptions on medical app use in clinical communication among Austrian physicians: Results of a validation study.
Physicians increasingly use medical applications to facilitate clinical information management. The respective effect on clinical communication and quality of healthcare provision has not been studied in the Austrian context so far. Thus, the current cross-sectional online study analyzed prevalent medical applications use and views on clinical communication competence in everyday medical practice among Austrian physicians (n = 151) and validated the survey tool. More than half of the participants used medical applications in daily clinical practice. The top three benefits of medical applications use were higher quality of healthcare, location-independent health service access, and higher efficiency in healthcare resource allocation. Moreover, study participants felt that communication competence acquired during medical studies inadequately prepared them for daily clinical practices. Medical applications use certainly affects the therapeutic alliance between patients and physician. This study supports the importance of initiating an open, constructive discussion among healthcare stakeholders and developing according to evidence-based guidelines.
['Haluza|Daniela|D|0000-0001-5619-2863', 'Hofer|Fanni|F|']
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel D001317:Austria D003142:Communication D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies D006297:Health Services Accessibility D006801:Humans D063731:Mobile Applications D010465:Perception D010820:Physicians D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
healthcare personnel online survey principal component analysis smartphones telehealth