title: The use of mobile smart devices and medical apps in the family practice setting.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  In this study smartphones/tablet PCs and medical application utilization by family physicians and factors concerning the acceptance of medical application in family practice setting have been studied.
  
  
  METHODS
  One hundred seventy-six participants voluntarily agreed to fill out a 27-item questionnaire. Data were analysed with descriptive statistics and eight items (acceptability of utilization of applications) revealed Cronbach's alpha of 0.965 and the factor analysis showed one factor explaining 80.6% of total variance.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean age of respondents was 35.7 [standard deviation (SD) = 8.12; min-max = 24-52], 79 were male (45.9%) and 88 female (51.2%), 56 (32.5%) were single and 113 (65.7%) married, and the mean experience duration as a physician was 11.1 years (SD = 11.1; min-max = 1-28). One hundred sixty-seven (97.1%) had a smartphone and/or tablet PC. Smartphone and/or tablet PC were used since 3.7 (SD = 2.17; min-max = 0-12) years. Sixty-one (35.5%) felt that smartphone and/or tablet PC are very important, 92 (53.5%) important, 2 (1.2%) unimportant and 12 (7%) were undecided about this. One hundred eleven (64.5%) participants had a medical application on the smartphone and 66 (38.4%) on the tablet PC. They used 1.7 (SD = 2.04; min-max = 0-10) medical applications for 1.45 (SD = 2.53; min-max = 0-25) times on average. Eighty respondents (66.7%) used a medical application for any medical problem.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Almost all family physicians used smartphone and/or tablet PC during daily practice, and the reason of use was commonly for communication and Internet purposes. Usage during working hours was limited, but medical apps were perceived mainly positively for receiving medical information via Internet. Looking at the medical apps' acceptability scale, participants were in agreement with the security, cost, contents' quality, ease of use, support, ease of finding, ease of accessing and motivation to use medical applications.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, Department of Family Medicine, Akdeniz University, Antalya, Turkey.
authors.forename: Hakan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yaman
authors.affiliation: Family Health Center, Rize, Turkey.
authors.forename: Erdinç
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Yavuz
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, Department of Medical Informatics and Biostatistics, Akdeniz University, Antalya, Turkey.
authors.forename: Adem
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Er
authors.affiliation: Borsa Clinic, Department of Family Practice, Antalya Training and Research Hospital, Antalya, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ramazan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Vural
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Engineering, Department of Electrics and Electronics, Akdeniz University, Antalya, Turkey.
authors.forename: Yalçin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Albayrak
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, Department of Medical Informatics and Biostatistics, Akdeniz University, Antalya, Turkey.
authors.forename: Ahmet
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yardimci
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, Department of Medical Informatics and Biostatistics, Akdeniz University, Antalya, Turkey.
authors.forename: Özcan
authors.initials: Ö
authors.lastname: Asilkan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D034201:Computers, Handheld; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D063731:Mobile Applications / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010821:Physicians, Family / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000068997:Smartphone; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors
keywords: Turkey; family practice; health care; medical applications; medical informatics; practical reasoning; primary care; smartphone