The use of mobile devices for professional, business, educational, personal and social purposes has accelerated exponentially over the last decade. Staff working in health care organisations, and patients and visitors using healthcare settings, understandably want to use mobile technology.Concerns have been raised about safety in terms of interference with equipment, threats to privacy and dignity, yet less policy attention has been paid to infection risks.Healthcare professional students were supplied with smartphones as part of a larger educational project. Devices collected from a sub-sample of students working in operating theatre contexts were sampled to estimate the cross contamination potential of the technology. A longitudinal multiple measures design was used. Under laboratory conditions samples were taken from surfaces using swabbing techniques followed by contact plating. The devices were subsequently cleaned with 70% isopropyl alcohol and returned to the students.All devices demonstrated microbial contamination and over three quarters (86%) polymicrobial contamination. The technique and sites used to sample for microbial contamination influenced the levels of contamination identified. Swabbing alone was less likely to isolate polymicrobial contamination than contact plating, and some microorganisms were isolated only by contact plates and not by swabbing of the same area.The findings from this study demonstrate further research is urgently needed to inform evidencebased infection control policy on the use of personal equipment such as mobile devices in the healthcare settings where contamination may have adverse effects on patients, staff and visitors..

Estimation equations based on different body segments are commonly used to predict height in patients whose height cannot be directly measured. This study aimed to assess the agreement between measured (reference) height and height predicted from published equations derived from measurement of body segments, in a South African public hospital setting. Design: A descriptive cross-sectional study was undertaken. Setting: Medical, surgical, pulmonary, orthopaedic, cardiovascular and general wards at three public hospitals in Bloemfontein. Subjects: Admitted patients, 20-50 years old; able to stand upright without assistance and without medical conditions or treatments affecting height. Outcome measures: Stadiometer height, recumbent height, arm span, demi-span, ulna length, knee height, tibia length, fibula length and foot length were measured with standardised techniques. Height, predicted by 12 published equations, was compared with stadiometer height by 95% confidence intervals (CI) and Bland-Altman analysis. Results: The median stadiometer height of the sample (n = 141; 38.3% female; median age 38.8 years, IQR 33.3-44.4 years) was 165.5 cm (males 169.3 cm; females 158.4 cm). Only a set of equations based on knee height and standardised on a large population of adults < 65 years in the United States estimated height without statistically significant deviance from the stadiometer height. Conclusions: Most standardised equations applied to hospitalised adults in a South African public health setting resulted in height estimations that differed significantly from height. Thus, equations standardised on other populations may not be suitable for the South African population, possibly due to differences in genetic and environmental factors.