Patients and providers report high satisfaction with the app, which helped detect complications
WEDNESDAY, Jan. 31, 2018 (HealthDay News) — A smartphone app for monitoring postoperative wound recovery is associated with high satisfaction among patients and providers and may help with detection of wound complications, according to a study published recently in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.
Rebecca L. Gunter, M.D., from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, and colleagues trained 40 vascular surgery inpatients to use a mobile health app that allowed them to transmit digital images of their surgical wound and answer a survey regarding their recovery. Participants completed the app daily for two weeks post-discharge.
The researchers found that 45 percent of participants submitted data every day for two weeks, with an overall submission rate of 90.2 percent. Providers reviewed submissions within an average of 9.7 hours of submission, with 91.9 percent of submissions reviewed within 24 hours. Seven wound complications were detected, along with one false negative. Both participants and providers had high satisfaction with the app.
“Patients and their caregivers are willing to participate in a mobile health program aimed at remote monitoring of postoperative recovery, and they are able to complete it with a high level of fidelity and satisfaction,” the authors write. “Preliminary results indicate the ability to detect and intervene on wound complications.”
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