Background: The advent of telemedicine has allowed physicians to deliver medical treatment to patients from a distance. Mobile\napps such as WhatsApp Messenger, an instant messaging service, came as a novel concept in all fields of social life, including\nmedicine. The use of instant messaging services has been shown to improve communication within medical teams by providing\nmeans for quick teleconsultation, information sharing, and starting treatment as soon as possible.\nObjective: The aim of this study was to perform a comprehensive systematic review of present literature on the use of the\nWhatsApp Messenger app as an adjunctive health care tool for medical doctors.\nMethods: Searches were performed in PubMed, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library using the term ââ?¬Å?whatsapp*ââ?¬Â in articles\npublished before January 2016. A bibliography of all relevant original articles that used the WhatsApp Messenger app was created.\nThe level of evidence of each study was determined according to the Oxford Levels of Evidence ranking system produced by the\nOxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine. The impact and the indications of WhatsApp Messenger are discussed in order to\nunderstand the extent to which this app currently functions as an adjunctive tool for telemedicine.\nResults: The database search identified a total of 30 studies in which the term ââ?¬Å?whatsapp*ââ?¬Â was used. Each articleââ?¬â?¢s list of\nreferences was evaluated item-by-item. After literature reviews, letters to the editor, and low-quality studies were excluded, a\ntotal of 10 studies were found to be eligible for inclusion. Of these studies, 9 had been published in the English language and 1\nhad been published in Spanish. Five were published by medical doctors.\nConclusions: The pooled data presents compelling evidence that the WhatsApp Messenger app is a promising system, whether\nused as a communication tool between health care professionals, as a means of communication between health care professionals\nand the general public, or as a learning tool for providing health care information to professionals or to the general population.\nHowever, high-quality and properly evaluated research is needed, as are improvements in descriptions of the methodology and\nthe study processes. These improvements will allow WhatsApp Messenger to be categorically defined as an effective telemedicine\ntool in many different fields of health care.
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