Research: Parental Perceptions on Smartphone Use for Clinical Mobility

Smartphones increasingly are used to facilitate the delivery of healthcare. Earlier studies assessing patient perceptions on smartphone use were performed before the emergence of broad clinical mobility platforms, and these studies did not distinguish potential differences related to smartphone device types. The current study evaluated the perceptions of neonatal intensive care unit parents on two different smartphone devices (personal phone and industrial phone) in the setting of an established clinical mobility platform. A total of 59 parents completed a multiple-choice survey exploring respondents' beliefs regarding whether smartphones could help care for their child, concerns regarding privacy/security, and perceived functionality of each smartphone. For both devices, most participants believed that smartphones were clearly used to help in the care of their child. However, respondents reported greater comfort with the industrial phone (P < 0.05). Respondents were more likely to express concern that the personal phone could compromise their child's personal/private information (P < 0.05). Respondents were more likely to believe that the industrial phone could receive emergency alerts/alarms compared with the personal phone (P < 0.05). Parental perceptions of smartphones generally were positive; however, perceived differences were found between devices, and smartphone functionality was underestimated. This suggested that education interventions addressing the value of smartphones for clinical mobility are warranted.