ArticleDrug safety2023
Facilitators and Barriers to Uptake of the Med Safety Mobile App for Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting by Health Workers in Uganda: A Qualitative Study.
Article in Drug safety, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 14 citations in OpenAlex.
- Adverse drug reaction reporting with the Med Safety app in Uganda: a cluster-randomised, controlled trial.The Lancet. Global health · 2025Trial
- Consumers' experiences and perspectives on reporting adverse drug reactions using digital tools: a qualitative study.International journal of clinical pharmacy · 2026Article
- Design and Evaluation of a Gamification-Based Mobile Application for Reporting Adverse Drug Reactions by Patients and Healthcare Professionals: A Pilot Usability Study in Diabetes Care.Drug, healthcare and patient safety · 2026Article
- Examining the potential of mobile money-based health insurance for people living with HIV and hypertension or diabetes in Uganda.Frontiers in health services · 2026Article
- Understanding causes of incomplete reports of adverse drug reactions associated with dolutegravir-based HIV treatment in uganda: a qualitative study.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Article
- Barriers and strategies to improve vaccine adverse events reporting: views from health workers and managers in Northern Ghana.BMJ public health · 2025Article
- Evaluating the effectiveness of AI-enhanced "One Body, Two Wings" pharmacovigilance models in China: a nationwide survey on medication safety and risk management.Frontiers in health services · 2025Article
- Healthcare professionals' willingness to utilize a mobile health application for adverse drug reaction reporting in a limited resource setting: An input for digital health, 2023.European journal of obstetrics & gynecology and reproductive biology: X · 2024Article
- Pharmacovigilance and Adverse Drug Reactions Reporting: Healthcare Providers' Experiences from Southern Highland Tanzania.Advances in pharmacological and pharmaceutical sciences · 2023Article
- First results from the lessons learnt from the deployment of the Med Safety App for reporting adverse drug reactions in Ghana.Digital healthArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionAdverse drug reactions (ADRs) are an important public health challenge worldwide; however, pharmacovigilance systems are plagued by under-reporting. Mobile technologies, including mobile applications such as Med Safety, could strengthen ADR reporting. We explored the acceptability, and factors that could influence uptake of, Med Safety for ADR reporting by health workers in Uganda.
methodsThe study took place between July and September 2020 in 12 HIV clinics in Uganda and employed a qualitative exploratory research design. We conducted 22 in-depth interviews and 3 mixed-gender focus group discussions (49 participants) with a diverse range of health workers. We analysed the data using a thematic approach.
resultsThere was goodwill among the health workers to adopt Med Safety for ADR reporting and the majority would recommend the app to other health workers. Training with practice increased acceptability of the app. Uptake of the app was favoured by the younger, technology proficient, health worker demographic; the app's offline and two-way risk communication functionalities; availability of free internet hotspots at some health facilities; goodwill and willingness of health workers to report ADRs; and the cumbersome nature of conventional ADR reporting tools. Potential barriers to the uptake of Med Safety were the perceived lengthy processes of initial app registration and completion of multiple screens during ADR reporting; challenges with health workers' smartphones (incompatibility with application, no space for more applications, low battery charge); high cost of internet data; poor internet connectivity; difficulty in recognising ADRs, language barrier and poor feedback to ADR reporters.
conclusionThere was goodwill among the health workers to adopt Med Safety for ADR reporting and the majority would recommend the app to other health workers. Training with practice increased acceptability of the app and should be integral in all future app roll-out campaigns. The identified facilitators and barriers could be used to appropriately guide future research and implementation to promote the uptake of Med Safety for pharmacovigilance in low- and middle-income countries.
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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.