Effectiveness of WhatsApp (a Messenger Program) Usage in Emergency Department (ED)

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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Effective communication between consulting physicians and the emergency physicians is critical for patients in the emergency department. The aim of this study was to determinate effectiveness of whatsApp usage for communication between physicians.

Detailed Description
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Effective communication between consulting physicians and the emergency physicians is critical for patients in the emergency department. Many hospitals still use outdated pager systems as the foundation for clinical communication between physicians and other health care professionals. But, outdated pager systems contain some problems including long waiting-times for the return of a page, high costs, frequent interruptions, and the inability to identify the location or identity of the caller. This outdated communication technologies in healthcare can place patient safety at risk. Therefore they are no longer seen as an effective communication tool given the obvious advantages of Smart phones. WhatsApp Messenger, which is a messaging program for smart phones, is the most commonly used for communication in at present. As of September 2015, WhatsApp incorporated announced more than 900 million users. This is making it the most globally popular messaging application. WhatsApp Messenger have been started to be used for communication in healthcare. So, this study aims to trial the effect of whatsApp usage for communication between physicians. Study Design and Setting: A prospective, randomized, double-blind, controlled, single-center, clinical trial was conducted in ED of a tertiary care university hospital with an annual census of approximately 200,000 visits.

Official Title
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Effectiveness of WhatsApp Messenger Usage and Other Technologises on Communication Between Consulting Physicians and the Emergency Department Staff: Randomised Double-blind Controlled Trial

Conditions
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Communication

Intervention / Treatment
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* Other: whatsApp
* Other: without whatsApp


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: Adult patients who performed consultation in emergency department. Patients who are consulted to a physician using whatsApp on a regular basis and who is chosen by an assistant blinded to the study. Exclusion Criteria: Patients below 18 years of age Missing emergency service consultations Patients with more than one consultation call Consultations which do not determined the arrival duration to emergency service

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 19 Years
Maximum Age: 80 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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No

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Quadruple


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: whatsApp messages<br>consultations in the experimental group will be generated with whatsApp. Patients' all radiographies, laboratory results, electrocardiographs, tomography images, wound images and/or extremity pictures will be sent to consultant physician via whatsApp. | Other: whatsApp<br>* whatsApp application will be used for consultations.<br>|
| Other: control group<br>consultations in the control group will be generated without whatsApp. | Other: without whatsApp<br>* whatsApp application will be not used for consultations.<br>|

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| arrival duration to emergency department | Examine consulting Physicians' arrival duration to emergency department will be obtained from consultation hours in whatsApp program. | one month | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| examine causes of consulting Physicians' arriving late to emergency department from data obtained by questioning of an assistant blinded to the study |  | one month | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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Referral and consultation, emergency department, WhatsApp