The Most Common Smartphone Applications Used By Medical Students and Barriers of Using Them

Medical knowledge is rapidly expanding and updating. It is very important that students can
timely access to information and the latest scientifc evidence without any time and place limitation. The
smartphone is one of ICT tools that adopted greatly by healthcare professionals. Today, the most medical
sciences universities have provided smartphone as an educational aid tool and acquisition licenses for
medical apps resources in training of their students. Aim: This research was conducted to determine
common smartphone applications among medical students of Urmia University of medical sciences and
to identify barriers in using them. Materials and Methods: This research was a descriptive type of study
carried out in 2016. Population of the study included 530 medical students completing the clinical course
in Urmia University of Medical Sciences. Data were collected using researcher-developed questionnaire.
The validity of it determined based on the view of experts and the reliability of it obtained by calculating
the value of Cronbach’s alpha (α = 0.82). Results: 82.3% of the students had smartphone, which in terms
of operating system the highest was related Andriod (53%) and iPhone (32%). The most common applications used often by medical students included Up to date, PubSearch, Calculate by QxMD, Epocrates
and OMnio. Lack of accreditation of medical apps by valid health institutions (4.63), lack of support and
update of applications by their developers (4.44), lack of adequate skill to use applications (4.25) are the
most important barriers in using these applications among students. Conclusion: To assurance quality of
medical apps, it seems very important that academic and healthcare organizations should be involved to
develop and update the apps and also provided guidelines for accreditation of apps. It is recommended
that for promotion of knowledge and skill of students provide essential educations.