Evaluation of family physicians' experiences and opinions on mobile health services: A Qualitative study

In Turkey, mobile health services have been implemented as primary health care services by family physicians since 2010, and efforts have been made to ensure equality in health access. The aim of our study is to identify the problems that arise during the provision of this service and to increase the quality and effectiveness of the service by offering solution suggestions. A descriptive qualitative method was used in our research. Our data were obtained using a semi-structured interview form containing nine sociodemographic information and four open-ended questions aimed at examining in depth the opinions and experiences of family physicians about mobile health services. These data, collected using the in-depth interview technique, were evaluated in the form of themes and categories. Of the 16 family physicians who participated in our study, 9 were male (56,2%) and 7 were female (43,8%). The average age of the participants was 37,37 ± 7,98 Standard Deviation (SD) years. The data obtained in our study were examined under the themes of "infrastructure and logistics problems", "efficiency and productivity", "target audience" and "working conditions and motivation". Mobile health services play a major role in ensuring health equality. Strong communication, technical infrastructure, local government support and working conditions of the personnel are decisive in the success of these services. We believe that the quality of the service can be increased with a coordination officer who knows the field conditions, fair and realistic financial support, psychosocial support for the employees and structural protective measures.