Barriers of Using Smart Phone Applications in Continuing Dental Education

Objectives: Smart phones are nowadays playing un-ignorable role in our lives. Smart phone applications (SPAs) are real assistants in sports, daily routines, travels, etc. They have also penetrated in medical practice with electronic health record, decision making, drug dose calculating software, etc.
The aim of this pilot study was to explore the most important barriers for using SPA as a tool for continuing dental education in Iran.

Methods: A questionnaire with 11 questions was distributed among young dentists with less than 10 years work experience through their existing e-social networks. We also distributed the questionnaire among senior dental student of Tehran University of Medical Sciences. The questionnaire asked the opinion of the respondents about the mentioned barriers for using SPA in continuing dental education through eight five-item Likert scale questions. Alternatives ranged from strongly important to strongly unimportant. Gender and years of work experience were also asked.

Results: After ten days from our request for filling the questionnaire, 79 dental professionals (25 students and 54 young dentists, 77.4% female) responded. According to their responses, internet speed and not being confident about the accuracy of medical applications’ content were the most important barrier in both students’ and dentists’ opinion. However, among students “bad visual characteristics” and among dentists “inability to download application” got the least score of importance. No difference based on gender was found.

Conclusions: Developing internet infrastructure to increase the speed and also having certifications from scientific and academic centers and associations may effectively enhance dentists’ confidence on SPA and this should be put on every SPA developer’s agenda.