Experiences of Health Care Providers Using a Mobile Medical Photography Application.

Objective: To understand the ways in which providers use a mobile photography application integrated with the electronic health record (EHR) to facilitate clinical care, and the process outcomes that result from the application's use.
Methods: An e-mail survey was sent on November 13, 2017, to 1,463 health care providers at Mayo Clinic who had used an internally developed, EHR-integrated medical photography application.
Results: The survey was completed by 712 (49%) providers. Providers reported using the application on approximately 1 in 7 days spent in clinical practice. Median provider satisfaction with the use of the application (0-100 scale; higher numbers indicate favorable response) was 94 (interquartile range [IQR]: 74-100). Although the use for store-and-forward telemedicine was reported (22% often or frequently used the application to send photographs to a specialist for advice), the most common use was for clinical documentation (65% often or frequently used the application to supplement text-based notes with photographs, and 71% often or frequently used the application to take photographs for reference by a colleague who may see the patient in the future). Of the health care providers, 36% indicated that the application's use often or frequently expedited treatment.
Discussion: Health care providers reported using a mobile point-of-care medical photography application regularly in clinical practice and were generally satisfied with the application.
Conclusion: Point-of-care medical photography using a secure mobile, EHR-integrated application has potential to become a new standard of care for clinical documentation and may facilitate continuity across the continuum of care with multiple providers who see a patient.
Competing Interests: The PhotoExam application is the institutional intellectual property of Mayo Clinic. All coauthors are employees or trainees at Mayo Clinic. Mayo Clinic is currently only using the PhotoExam application internally for clinical care and has not licensed the application for sale.
(Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)