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  1. Donnchadh Martin O’Sullivan1,
  2. Eoin O’Sullivan2,
  3. Margaret O’Connor1,
  4. Declan Lyons1,
  5. John McManus1
  1. 1Department of Geriatrics, University Hospital Limerick, Limerick, Ireland
  2. 2Department of Renal Medicine, Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Donnchadh Martin O’Sullivan, Department of Geriatrics, University Hospital Limerick, Limerick, Ireland; dosullivan373{at}gmail.com

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjinnov-2017-000239

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    Interest continues to grow around the most appropriate use of smartphones, tablet devices and related software in the modern healthcare setting. The meteoric rise of the smartphone in broader society has resulted in increasing numbers of healthcare professionals informally introducing this technology to the workplace. High-quality data to support device use in treatment and decision making are thus far lacking, but the potential benefits of deploying such technology are increasingly recognised.1 2

    Research we have conducted at the University Hospital Limerick (UHL), Ireland, identified the widespread use of the instant messenger software ‘WhatsApp’ for communication between health professionals. Responding to an anonymised survey, 80% (n=41/51) of the intern cohort at UHL confirmed that instant messaging systems are already informally integrated into modern medicine in Ireland. We found that 100% of respondents have a WhatsApp account and that 100% have an active ‘group chat’ used for clinical medicine at UHL. These WhatsApp groups can vary, with approximately 10% including only interns, 70% also including senior house officiersand registrars, and up to 20% of groups including …

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors All authors contributed to the planning, conduct, and reporting of the work described in the article. All authors are responsible for the overall content. The writing and presentation of this manuscript represents original work. We have not closely paraphrased other sources, even when appropriately cited.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.