Reza Safdari, Mohamad Jebraeily, Bahlol Rahimi and Abbas Doulani
Medical students have required timely access to information, such as algorithms and clinical guidelines, drug reference, clinical calculations, demographic information and also the latest scientific evidences at the point of care from anywhere at anytime. Therefore, to meet such needs in the areas of clinical training, utilization of smartphone appears to be essential. This study aimed to investigate the rate of using smartphone applications in the clinical training of students at the Urmia University of Medical Sciences and its influencing factors. We therefore distributed a questionnaire to clinical medical students. Data were obtained from 185 participants. 61.6% of students had Smartphone that 47% of them using apps in their clinical training. The highest rate of using medical applications among residents counseling and clinical communication (50%), among interns drug reference (56%) and among externs resources and e-books (65%). Prioritizing the medical applications in the view of respondents indicated that Up-to-date application is the first priority (37%). Factors such as accreditation of medical applications by health institutions, donation of financial facilities and ease of the use of applications are the most important factors in increasing the use of these applications. Given that the use of medical applications in medical students was relatively low. It seems essential that the training courses required for familiarity and way of using applications be held. The accreditation of smartphone medical app by health institutions, donation of financial facilities and ease of the use of applications can have a significant impact on increasing the use of such applications.
