Dos and don?ts for mHealth-based clinical support among clinicians in South Africa: Results from a 1-day workshop

Digital technologies continue to penetrate the South African (SA) healthcare sector at an increasing rate. Clinician-to-clinician diagnostic and management assistance through mHealth is expanding rapidly, reducing professional isolation and unnecessary referrals, and promoting better patient outcomes and more equitable healthcare systems. However, the widespread uptake of mHealth use raises ethical concerns around patient autonomy and safety, and guidance for healthcare workers around the ethical use of mHealth is needed. This article presents the results of a multi-stakeholder workshop at which the ?dos and don?ts? pertaining to mHealth ethics in the SA context were formulated and aligned to seven basic recommendations derived from the literature and previous multistakeholder, multi-country meetings.

Automated summary

The rapid penetration of digital technologies in the South African healthcare sector, particularly in mHealth, has improved diagnostic and management assistance between clinicians. However, ethical concerns regarding patient autonomy and safety have arisen with the widespread use of mHealth. Guidelines for healthcare workers regarding the ethical use of mHealth have been formulated based on multi-stakeholder workshops and previous meetings.