WhatsApp in the NHS: symptomatic of a few poor choices, or a chronic problem?

Web-based contextual communications can replace existing unified communications tools to aid traceability and raise security at work, argues Rob Pickering

In the news last week, the BBC reported ‘widespread' use of WhatsApp in the NHS. It said that 'doctors and nurses are using WhatsApp and Snapchat to share information about patients ‘across the NHS''. The same is happening within other verticals too. In 2016, we heard similar reports from the Foreign Office, saying that 'rather than make use of specially tailored government tools, many British diplomats use WhatsApp to discuss sensitive issues.'

It's easy to see the appeal of WhatsApp and other internet-based messaging apps typically associated with consumer use. The complexity of ‘official' workplace communications tools can quickly lead to frustration and the convenience of quick, easy-to-use and accessible communication tools - often already installed on their personal devices - presents, by comparison, a simpler way to communicate. The ability to chat, arrange group messages or voice calls at mutually convenient times and go back to asynchronous (or no) communication as attention spans allow fits reasonably well with how people naturally wish to communicate while at work. This is at odds with many communication platforms currently in use in government organisations and enterprises, where complexity in achieving unified communication (UC) functions like chat and file sharing is often married with restrictive permissions.

This problem is amplified when government organisations and enterprises struggle to keep pace with technology, as is often the case. This makes it all the more likely that employees will find and use their own alternatives to discuss work and make important decisions, leading to massive complexity in terms of traceability and accountability. Not only does it make it difficult to integrate these communications into a seamless and secure overall experience, but using isolated ‘shadow' communication tools could mean major security and data and confidentiality breaches. And for large regulated organisations, sending sensitive patient or customer information via internet-based messaging apps is against guidelines and potentially breaks the law, especially in the light upcoming GDPR compliance.

It doesn't need to be this way. With the prevalence of the web as the universal UI, we have the opportunity to deliver secure, integrated communications with all of the convenience and capability of social tools. Open web standards like Web Real Time Communication (WebRTC) have made it possible to create contextual communication tools natively usable by billions of devices across the globe. This means embedding real time communication functions like voice, video, file and screen sharing and chat within web applications, devices and even IoT and mobile platforms rather than as a stand-alone tool, without any plugins.

There are many advantages to this contextual communications approach. Users gain access to historical, current and other contextual data to help them to make faster, more informed decisions; an example could be doctors and nurses sharing new x-ray files together with patient history, access drug information and set up a chat or video call about required medical treatments, all from within the application.

Contextual communications also allows users to be more efficient; embedding a comms function within a task eliminates the cognitive distraction of context switches and removes the need to make decisions around when and how to contact someone.

Ultimately, contextual communications signifies a fundamental shift in how people communicate. Contextual communications provide an opportunity for organisations to both simplify and enhance their communications, reaping a raft of benefits from improved productivity and efficiency to streamline processes, while at the same time improving security and ensuring good data governance. It's also a huge enabler for many of the aims of the government transformation strategy published earlier in the year. It may not completely eliminate unofficial work use of WhatsApp and other social apps, but WhatsApp will no longer be the path of least resistance when compared with a new way of working that people won't recognise as having a distinct, separate or friction-bearing communications element.

Rob Pickering is founder and CEO at IP Cortex. Previously, he has held a variety of technical roles and fondly remembers the days when he was a proper engineer and wrote a TCP/IP protocol stack from scratch for a microprocessor vendor.