Developing a nationwide spine care referral programme on the WhatsApp messenger platform: The Oman experiment

Smartphone based computational activities have recently invaded the healthcare sector and several applications including clinical diagnostics, laboratory data analysis, nursing care, education, data archiving and resource management have been successfully implemented. This paper studies the use of the Whatsapp messenger as a platform for integrating the Spine care services in the Sultanate of Oman by streamlining the referral patterns to tertiary care centers.

In January 2015, a Whatsapp group was created including representatives of spine units from all 8 regional hospitals in Oman including Spine Consultants from tertiary care spine center in the country- Khoula Hospital. The referral data for 2 years and 9 months was retrospectively retrieved and analysed to determine the response time and treatment plans proposed for each case. They were compared with the available data of 2014.

452 cases were referred using this platform during the study period. Forty percent of these were accepted and about 25% were advised to be treated conservatively at the referring hospital itself. The time to response reduced dramatically from over 12 h to a mean of one hour and 45 min as a result of this change.

The Whatsapp messenger platform appears to be an effective tool for inter-hospital referral based on clinical data and imaging studies and to obtain rapid responses from the referee center. This leads to optimal utilisation of specialised resources and indirectly helps reducing waiting times in specialty clinics. It also minimises inappropriate transfers and helps standardise care across the system.