‘I keep my brain on my iPhone’ – being and becoming an emergency physician in a technological age

Abstract

ABSTRACT The use of mobile information and communication technologies within health and medical education contexts is widespread and generally viewed positively. Such technologies are primarily used for information seeking and are often undertaken informally. This qualitative, phenomenological study offers not only a deep and contextually sensitive discussion of how emergency physicians use mobile technologies in their day-to-day work, but also extends this discussion to the practice of ongoing professional learning in the workplace. We find that the most common uses for mobile technology include (re)checking medicine orders and/or diagnoses and for communicating with other physicians for advice, support, and on occasion, discussion. Moreover, physicians often perceive mobile technology as an extension of self and represent an externalisation of expertise. There is skepticism, however, about the use of these technologies particularly among more experienced and established Attending Physicians (or Consultants in other jurisdictions). In all, these findings provide new perspectives on and further directions for both research and practice in health and medical education contexts given that the use of mobile technology in the emergency department is ubiquitous and increasingly normalised, particularly within the clinical interaction with patients.