Medicine and messages

During COVID, WhatsApp revolutionised the delivery of healthcare when lockdown and travel restrictions were in place

As I entered the patient’s examination cubicle, I noticed him hurriedly taking a picture of his x-ray in his smartphone. The x-ray was hung upside down and I instinctively corrected it and asked him to take a picture. The gentleman coyly took a snap and said, “My sister’s son is a medical student and I wanted to show my x-ray to him.”

Of late, every medical record is pictured by patients on their smartphones since it serves as a repository and a ready reckoner. The moment I ask a patient about his past history, he would whip out his smartphone, proudly open his gallery and scroll the thousands of images up and down a few times and show some of his previous medical consultations. Apart from being stored, the pictures are also sent through WhatsApp to family members and friends. Among the many recent technological advances in the last decade, WhatsApp would stand tall as a creator of disruptive innovation. It has suffused every part of our lives. I notice that it has brought significant changes in the way healthcare is practised and delivered.

Since time immemorial, it has been common for patients to miss their old prescriptions and previous investigations when they come for review. They would let out a sheepish smile, scold their partners or feign ignorance about any such prescriptions. Some patients would try to recollect the medications based on size and shape (“one big yellow-coloured tablet and another small round white tablet, doctor”). With the advent of WhatsApp, we can now retrieve the reports easily, either from the patient’s own phone gallery or someone back in their home would click a picture and send it then and there.