MOBILE APPLICATIONS: PATHWAY TO IMPROVED ACCESSIBILITY TO REHABILITATION KNOWLEDGE

R. Gadgil1, K. Jackson11Physiopedia, London, United KingdomBackground: There are many barriers to accessing knowledge in low- and low-middle-income countries (LMIC). The barriers were identified as lack of time, lack of financial and personal resources, and limited access to scientific journals.Regalaldo et al. noted that transfer of knowledge from academic institutions to rehabilitation clinical practice in low and upper-middle-income countries is important to support evidence-based practice and patient outcomes and is needed to support rehabilitation professionals' efforts to achieve the application of evidence-based practice in clinical practice.Mobile applications were found to be effective and efficient adjuncts to enhance medical skills and education considering their low expense, high versatility, reduced dependency on regional or site boundaries, online and offline simulation, and flexible learning features.A healthcare application with a focus on rehabilitation knowledge may prove to be a useful and efficient way to improve knowledge access in LMIC. In 2019, Physiopedia launched the Physiopedia Application in order to improve this access to countries with different socioeconomic strata. The application's goal was to provide an easy-to-use platform that addressed common concerns among those in low and low-middle-income countries.Purpose: To explore and understand how an Application designed for rehabilitation professionals improves access to knowledge for the global rehabilitation community.Methods: Through exploring available data, we were able to understand the demographics of users and their choice of device. We compared data from the Physiopedia application to Physiopedia website data to find the user distribution, device and software choice.Results: The data demonstrated the trends for knowledge acquisition. Physiopedia Application is a popular tool that is accessible on a small hand-held device. The results showed an upward trend for access to the app on an Android device as compared with an iOS device. On the other hand, the iOS was the device of choice for the website. A hand held device was the choice of device in both cases.The demographical data presented an increase in app usage in LMIC countries (India, Pakistan, Nigeria, and South Africa) as compared to engagement in developed countries (the USA, UK, and Canada) while in the website usage, we found USA,UK, Canada, Australia to be accessing the website more as compared to India, South Africa and Pakistan.According to the findings mentioned above, the application usage distribution in LMIC countries is more as compared to developed nations, supporting our hypothesis.Conclusions: The results reiterate the application to be a popular tool in low- and low-middle-income countries. According to user reviews, the application was able to overcome the barriers faced in LMICs to better knowledge access and reach. An in detail analysis with gender, occupation and age distribution and a comparison with other applications can be useful in the future.Implications: Applications designed to be viewed on a small device, and that allow articles to be downloaded to be viewed offline, assist in removing certain barriers and improving access to information to those with limited resources. Such applications will also help in improving access to evidence-based knowledge on a large scale ensuring quality and efficiency in the rehabilitation community.Funding acknowledgements: This project was not supported by any funding.Keywords:Mobile AppsRehabilitation KnowledgeUser interfaceTopics:Education: continuing professional developmentGlobalisation: health systems, policies & strategiesProfessional issues: diversity and inclusionDid this work require ethics approval? NoReason: This presentation reports on innovative ways in global professional education and professional development through the analysis of public available website data.All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.