Exploring the Effect of mHealth Technologies on Communication and Information Sharing in a Pediatric Critical Care Unit: A Case Study

Communication and information sharing is an important aspect of healthcare information technology and mHealth management. A main requirement in the quality of patient care is the ability of all health care participants to communicate. Research illustrates that the complexity of communicating within the health care system hinders the quality of health care service delivery. Health informatics have been touted as a way to improve communication deficiencies, which has led to the exponential growth of health informatics integration. However, research still lags in understanding how health informatics affects patient care, health professional work routines, and the overall health care system. This study investigates the extent to which mHealth technologies influence communication information sharing patterns between interdisciplinary health care providers in the delivery of health care services. This study was conducted at Hamilton Health Sciences and through a sociotechnical approach, focuses on both the end user’s experiences with mHealth in daily work communication scenarios, and the extent to which mHealth use affects interdisciplinary communication. Results indicate that there are several mitigating factors which influence communication patterns using mHealth technologies, including: information sharing, mobility, ergonomic and system design.