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Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2016 Dec 5;129(23):2816-2823.
doi: 10.4103/0366-6999.194635.

Smartphone Application WeChat for Clinical Follow-up of Discharged Patients with Head and Neck Tumors: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Ke-Xing Lyu  1 , Jing Zhao  1 , Bin Wang  1 , Guan-Xia Xiong  1 , Wei-Qiang Yang  2 , Qi-Hong Liu  3 , Xiao-Lin Zhu  1 , Wei Sun  1 , Ai-Yun Jiang  1 , Wei-Ping Wen  1 , Wen-Bin Lei  1
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Smartphone Application WeChat for Clinical Follow-up of Discharged Patients with Head and Neck Tumors: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Ke-Xing Lyu et al. Chin Med J (Engl). .

Abstract

Background: Nowadays, social media tools such as short message service, Twitter, video, and web-based systems are more and more used in clinical follow-up, making clinical follow-up much more time- and cost-effective than ever before. However, as the most popular social media in China, little is known about the utility of smartphone WeChat application in follow-up. In this study, we aimed to investigate the feasibility and superiority of WeChat application in clinical follow-up.

Methods: A total of 108 patients diagnosed with head and neck tumor were randomized to WeChat follow-up (WFU) group or telephone follow-up (TFU) group for 6-month follow-up. The follow-ups were delivered by WeChat or telephone at 2 weeks, 1, 2, 3, and 6 months to the patients after being discharged. The study measurements were time consumption for follow-up delivery, total economic cost, lost-to-follow-up rate, and overall satisfaction for the follow-up method.

Results: Time consumption in WFU group for each patient (23.36 ± 6.16 min) was significantly shorter than that in TFU group (42.89 ± 7.15 min) (P < 0.001); total economic cost in WFU group (RMB 90 Yuan) was much lower than that in TFU group (RMB 196 Yuan). Lost-to-follow-up rate in the WFU group was 7.02% (4/57) compared with TFU group, 9.80% (5/51), while no significance was observed (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.176-2.740; P = 0.732). The overall satisfaction rate in WFU group was 94.34% (50/53) compared with 80.43% (37/46) in TFU group (95% CI: 0.057-0.067; P = 0.034).

Conclusions: The smartphone WeChat application was found to be a viable option for follow-up in discharged patients with head and neck tumors. WFU was time-effective, cost-effective, and convenient in communication. This doctor-led follow-up model has the potential to establish a good physician-patient relationship by enhancing dynamic communications and providing individual health instructions.

Trial registration: Chinese Clinical Trial Registry, ChiCTR-IOR-15007498; http://www.chictr.org.cn/ showproj.aspx?proj=12613.

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Conflict of interest statement

There are no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Trial procedure of the follow-up design.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Time consumption of clinical follow-up. WFU: WeChat follow-up; TFU: Telephone follow-up; *P < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.
Figure 3
Figure 3
The doctor-led physician-patient relationship.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Management strategy of WeChat follow-up method (WeChat user interface): Representative pictures chosen from our WeChat follow-up method to show our management strategies. (a) WeChat list of patients (translated into English); (b) Laryngoscopy sent by patients; (c) Health consultation of a discharged laryngectomized.
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