SMARTPHONE APPLICATIONS FOR IMPROVED PHARMACEUTICAL CARE

Advancement in mobile technologies are seen with introduction of many smartphone applications. These advancements in the field of smartphone applications can be exploited to improve pharmaceutical care practice ultimately leading to betterment of patients. Objectives of the study were to identify, evaluate and review current smartphone applications available at various platforms and recommended for pharmaceutical care. Data was extracted from platforms Android’s Google play store, Nokia’s Ovi store, Windows and marketplace for smartphone applications pertinent to pharmaceutical care. From all the applications accessed through various platforms the five stars rated freely downloadable smart phone applications were selected, tabulated and further evaluated by using standard questionnaire. In this study a total of 194 apps were identified in android, windows and ovi store mobile platforms of which 99 applications were from Android’s Google Play Store, 48 applications from Windows store and 47 applications were available in Ovi stores. 74% of them were free to download and 132 of 194 apps i.e. 68% had customer satisfaction ratings and only nine apps had five star ratings. We conclude from this study that patient centered pharmaceutical care can be cost effective and possible via smart phone applications. However, careful evaluation for their reliability and validity of the information is required before adopting them. We recommend involving expertise pharmacists and pharmacologists from academic and practicing in development of such smartphone applications to make apps both attractive and practical