Healthcare guidance apps to professional’s continued education?

This article was exclusively written for The European Sting by Mr. Daltro Moreira Iori and Mr. Gabriel Muniz Manholer, two medical students at the University Center of Maringá, Paraná, Brazil. They are affiliated to the International Federation of Medical Students Associations (IFMSA), cordial partner of The Sting. The opinions expressed in this piece belong strictly to the writers and do not necessarily reflect IFMSA’s view on the topic, nor The European Sting’s one.

Health education has a multidisciplinary character, uniting several spheres of professionals with a common goal, thus, providing the necessary support to expand health knowledge. In addition to that, continuing health education builds up an education process based on the analysis of the daily life of doctors, creating concrete relationships with the purpose of building a mutual space for doctors and pacients.

In this context, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) focused on the health area, especially mobile applications  (known as apps – from the English application) that are described as a set of tools that are built to perform specific jobs supporting the structure and organization of information with real–time access in addition to knowledge sharing across a wide, global network development and improvement of health professionals. Mobile devices due to their feature space barrier breaks add strategic value for both health education and a new society in the information age¹.

In addition, in a country like Brazil, where advanced technologies for medical diagnosis are restricted to large health centers, the apps enable the physician to make clinical decisions, reliable diagnostic elaborations and qualified therapeutic approaches. Remote real–time access to patient information enables full–time care by reducing patient‘s commuting to health centers. In this sense, mobile applications meet the purpose of interconnecting information and knowledge generating a barrier drop making there be new forms of communication building a new modality.

According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, about 126.9 million people have access to the worldwide internet network through mobile phones and smartphones. Which, in addition to mobile applications, in the health area, help to expand people‘s access to information and knowledge, without time and space restriction. This quick access by apps promotes user autonomy through alternative tools resulting in self–management of needs immediate access to information that assists in empowerment and self-care.

In this context, it is necessary that the fine line between proximity and distance by technology is handled lightly and objectively in order to generate both physician and patient with fast, safe and instant means of researching information that generates convenience and that saves lives through simple, easy-to-access systems.

REFERENCES:

1. CARVALHO, D.C.C. PAIM, S.M.S, SASSO, G.T.M.D, et al. Métodos para Desenvolvimento de Aplicativos Móveis em Saúde: Revisão Integrativa da Literatura. Enfermagem. 2017  [cited  2020  July  24] ;  26( 4 ): e2260017. Available from: [http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0104-07072017000400502&lng=en.]  Access from: 21 july 2020.
2. CECCIM, R. B. Educação Permanente em Saúde: desafio ambicioso e necessário. Interface – Comunicação, Saúde, Educação, São Paulo, v. 9, n. 16, p. 161-77, set. 2004. Access from: 21 july 2020.

About the authors

Daltro Moreira Iori is a medical student with a scholarship from the University for All program of the Federal Government of Brazil, at the University Center of Maringá, Paraná, Brazil. Member of IFMSA Brazil Unicesumar, scientific director of theAcademic League of Urgent Emergencies and Trauma of Maringá, member of the Academic League of Infectious Diseases of Maringá and of the Humanizart extension project. Researcher for the Institutional Scientific Initiation Scholarship Program (PIBIC) in the area of ​​HIV / AIDS and sexual rights and diversity, as well as
passionate about public health and the entire intrinsic universe it carries.

Gabriel Muniz Manholer is a medical student at the University Center of Maringá, currently on the fifth period. He always loved to help people and to understand their history and dreams. Also, he was always curious about the functioning of the human body and all of its complexities. With that, medicine became a dream job for him.