Perception and Readiness of Community Pharmacists on the Use of Mobile Smart Phone as a Health Monitoring Tool

Introduction : Recently, the integration of mobile phone apps into healthcare system is increasing as a result of the availability of medical applications. This study determined the perception of readiness of community pharmacists on the use of mobile smartphone as a health monitoring tool and the relationships between perception and readiness with selected demographic variables of the respondents. Methods : A cross-sectional survey was conducted by distributing a modified 15-item instrument to a convenience sample of pharmacists (n = 245) across Malaysia by post. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS version 20. Results : Response rate was 31.4% (n= 77). The mean age of the respondents was 35.5 ± 6. 52 years. The sample consisted of mostly women (71.4%). Overall, there were moderate “positive responses” across the two domains. Positive perception ranged from 54.5% to 66.2% and positive readiness ranged from 55.8% to 64.9%. No significant associations between perception and readiness with the selected demographic variables were detected (age, gender, location and outlet type). Conclusions : This study demonstrated that there was generally positive perception of mobile phone use for pharmaceutical care among community pharmacists in Malaysia. They were also ready to adapt it to improve pharmaceutical care delivery to patients.