Exploring The Opinion Of E-Medicine Application Users: A Qualitative Study In Karachi Pakistan

Abstract

Background: The blistering development of digital health technologies has added to the dependence on the use of e-medicine applications in accessing pharmacological and healthcare information. It is necessary to understand the perceptions and experiences of users with these applications to enhance usability and reliability, and patient-centered outcomes. The research was conducted to gather the views, experiences, and expectations of users on the variety of e-medicine applications in Karachi, Pakistan.

Methodology : A semi-structured face-to-face interview was chosen as qualitative exploratory research was performed in November to December 2023. Purposive sampling was used to select the participants aged between 18 and 65 years and they were required to have used mobile e-medicine applications. A total of 22 participants were used to saturating the data. To be credible and trustworthy, independent researcher’s audio-recorded interviews, transcribed them word-to-word, translated them to English and performed thematic analysis with NVivo software.

Results: The gender of the participants was dominated by females (63.63%). The age of participants mostly fell within the range of 20-30 years (63.63). There were twelve themes of major themes such as the patterns of application use, usability expectations, benefits, risk, and satisfaction. Medscape, Pharmapedia, and Pharma Plus are some of the frequently used applications. The most popular apps were utilized by the users to get all the necessary information about drugs, dosage instructions, and check-ins. Simplicity, correct and current information and offline access were some of the desired features. The positive aspects were better education, convenience, and timesaving, whereas the negative issues were false information, risk of self-medication, technical problems, and advertisements.

Conclusion: The use of e-medicine applications is viewed as a useful tool to obtain information about medication and assist in decision-making. The mechanisms of information accuracy, usability, and quality assurance should be enhanced to facilitate safe use and improve their contribution to the healthcare delivery process.