Abstract:
Abstract
Introduction: Medical knowledge is rapidly expanding and updating. It is very important that
physicians can timely access to information and the latest scientific evidence without any time and
place limitation. The smartphone medical application is one of ICT tools that adopted greatly by
physicians. Today, most hospitals have adopted smartphone medical application as a medical aid
tool and acquisition licenses for smartphone medical apps resources in clinical practice of their
physicians. Aim: This research was conducted to determine smartphone applications use and
associated factors among physician at referral hospitals in Amhara region, Ethiopia 2019.
Methods: Institution based cross-sectional study design was conducted among physicians working
at referral hospitals in Amhara region, Ethiopia from February 5 to May 27, 2019. 423 physicians
were participated, Data were collected using self-administered questionnaire and in-depth
interview for quantitative and qualitative respectively. The validity of the questionnaire was
determined based on the view of experts and the reliability of it obtained by calculating the value
of Cronbach’s alpha (? = 0.78). The data were entered using Epi-Info version 7. Software and the analysis
were done using SPSS software version 20. Descriptive statistics, bi-variable, and multi-variable logistic
regression analyses were used to assess factors associated with smartphone medical application use among
physicians. Adjusted odds ratio at 95% CI was used to describe the association between the factors and the
outcome variables. Thematic content analysis method was used for qualitative data analysis.
Results: 89% of the physicians had medical application installed on their smartphone, from these
participants 63.3% of the physicians used smartphone medical applications during clinical
practice. The most common applications used often by physicians include Up to date, Medscape,
Medcalc and Doximity. Attitude(AOR=1.64, CI: [1.05, 2.55]), internet
access(AOR=2.82,CI:[1.75,4.54]), Computer training(AOR=1.71, CI:[1.09,2.67]),perceived
usefulness of application(AOR=1.64,CI: [1.05,2.54]), IT support staff(AOR=2.363,CI: [1.53.08]),
and technical skill(AOR=2.52, CI:[1.50-4.25]) were statistically have significant
association with smartphone medical application use. Conclusion: In this study smartphone
medical application use among physician was 63.3%. Attitude, internet access, Computer training,
perceived usefulness of application, IT support staff, and technical skill were factors associated
with medical app use. Keywords: smartphone, medical applications, physicians, associated factors
