ArticleSouth African family practice : official journal of the South African Academy of Family Practice/Primary Care2022
Use of the Vula App to refer patients in the West Coast District: A descriptive exploratory qualitative study.
Article in South African family practice : official journal of the South African Academy of Family Practice/Primary Care, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 7 citations in OpenAlex.
- Core functions of primary care in Amathole District, South Africa: a descriptive study.BJGP open · 2025Article
- Evaluating referrals between rural district hospitals and a regional hospital in South Africa.African journal of primary health care & family medicine · 2025Article
- The critical role of primary care clinicians in the early detection of ocular surface squamous neoplasia.South African family practice : official journal of the South African Academy of Family Practice/Primary Care · 2025Article
- A survey of doctors' perspectives on critical laboratory result communication in Cape Town, South Africa.The Southern African journal of critical care : the official journal of the Critical Care Society · 2025Article
- Development of an mHealth App by Experts for Queer Individuals' Sexual-Reproductive Health Care Services and Needs: Nominal Group Technique Study.JMIR formative research · 2024Article
- IDEAL: Maintaining PHC-focused training in a MBChB programme through a COVID-induced innovation.African journal of primary health care & family medicine · 2024Article
- Digitalization in orthopaedics: a narrative review.Frontiers in surgery · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundReferral systems play a pivotal role in coordination and quality of care and should be evaluated for their utility. The Vula App is used by various disciplines and hospitals in South Africa to refer patients. The aim was to explore the perceptions of medical practitioners regarding the use of the Vula App in the West Coast District.
methodsA descriptive, exploratory qualitative study used semi-structured interviews with 11 medical practitioners. The highest and lowest users of the Vula App were selected from seven district hospitals. Qualitative data analysis used the framework method and Atlas-ti.
resultsThere were five themes: impact on the referral process, quality of care, coordination of care, continuous professional development, and how to improve the Vula App. Its use was well established in the outpatient and semi-urgent setting, but participants were hesitant to rely on it for immediate advice. Specialist advice via the Vula App enabled practitioners to manage patients remotely. The referral hand-over function had a positive impact on the coordination of care. Advice and feedback via the Vula App assisted with continuous professional development.
conclusionThe Vula App is a useful tool to refer patients to the emergency centre and outpatient departments. It can improve the immediate quality of care and sequential coordination of care. It has the potential to enable continuous professional development. There is a need to standardise its use, to ensure electronic information flows back to the district and to integrate the data into the district's health information system.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.