Use of Smartphones and Its Perception in the Recording and Distribution of Medical Images among Dental Practitioners

Abstract

Objective: The need for prompt acquisition and distribution of data and information is a rapidly developing industry. Smartphones has played a huge role in this aspect, and it has rapidly evolved in the medical profession. This has the capacity to improve health care, but comes with specific ethical and medico-legal considerations that include issues of confidentiality, privacy and policy control. The objective of the study was to quantitatively assess the use of smartphones in a clinical setting along with their perception regarding policies, practice and patient care.

Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study design was utilized for the study among dental surgeon in the University of Benin Teaching hospital, Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria. Data was collected using a semi-administered questionnaire and was tabulated and analyzed using the statistical package for IBM SPSS version 24.0 and quantitative tables were expressed as frequencies and percentages.

Results: Forty-six responses were received. Most respondents were from the Oral surgery discipline, followed by Paedodontics, then Restorative dentistry. Ninety-seven percent admitted to taking medical images on their smartphones, yet no consent as obtained in almost a quarter (19.6%). When consent was taken, it was predominantly verbal, but only documented 32.6% of the time. Of those who took medical images, 97.8% stored them in the personal device and 77.8% shared identifiable images with someone else, mostly for input from another clinician. About six percent were aware that an institutional policy existed, but none had read the policy.

Conclusion: Dental surgery is a highly visual field in which practice is complemented by the use of photographic images for patient care and educational purposes. Among Dental surgeons, personal smartphones are regularly being used to photograph the clinical state of a patient. Whilst the use of smartphones in a hospital setting is inevitable, the results obtained highlight issues related to privacy, confidentiality and patient care. This study will enable discussion and formulation of an evidence-based hospital policy.