Smartphones in remote medicine and daily neurosurgery: The Sabah update

INTRODUCTION: Healthcare costs continue to rise every day as the demand outgrows the supply of surgeons. The application of telephone consultation for immediate management is needed as most neurosurgeons are technology orientated. This enables a specialist at a remote mobile site to receive the necessary information and reduce transmission time, from the second the patient is seen till the management is obtained. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We conducted a survey on smartphone ownership among doctors and gathered cases that needed neurosurgical input from 1(st) November 2012 till 30(th) April 2013 from all 24 district hospitals in Sabah, Malaysia. RESULTS: The percentage of smartphone ownership among doctors surveyed and usage of it for remote and daily medicine at various departments at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Kota Kinabalu, which shows at least 90% smartphone ownership and proves 100% ownership of cross-platform instant messaging applications and its usage for remote and daily medicine. It also proves to be a more popular mode of referral compared to “teleconsultation” (TC). DISCUSSION: In Sabah, the TC service is used for remote medical consultation and only available at four hospitals. The sender needs direct access to a computer with the TC software, and it causes delay whereas doctors using smartphones will just need to discuss the case on the spot and obtain the appropriate management within minutes. Smartphone usage is also important in daily neurosurgery especially at the department level to promote efficient communication, organization, and interaction between all the staff. As for the department's administrative sector, it is useful to notify if anyone is on leave, attending courses or even meetings as the shortage can be avoided, and redistribution easily done. It also allows us to transfer simple intra-departmental data at any time, and any place whenever required. CONCLUSION: With all the given fact, it is clear that a day without utilizing this service in our daily life will leave us handicapped and struggling with time and resources.