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. 2021 Dec 30;4(2):e32575.
doi: 10.2196/32575.

A Mobile App With Multimodality Prehabilitation Programs for Patients Awaiting Elective Surgery: Development and Usability Study

Tianyu Wang  1 , Philip R Stanforth  1 , R Y Declan Fleming  1 , J Stuart Wolf Jr  1 , Dixie Stanforth  1 , Hirofumi Tanaka  1
Affiliations

A Mobile App With Multimodality Prehabilitation Programs for Patients Awaiting Elective Surgery: Development and Usability Study

Tianyu Wang et al. JMIR Perioper Med. .

Abstract

Background: Complying with a prehabilitation program is difficult for patients who will undergo surgery, owing to transportation challenges and a limited intervention time window. Mobile health (mHealth) using smartphone apps has the potential to remove barriers and improve the effectiveness of prehabilitation.

Objective: This study aimed to develop a mobile app as a tool for facilitating a multidisciplinary prehabilitation protocol involving blood flow restriction training and sport nutrition supplementation.

Methods: The app was developed using "Appy Pie," a noncoding app development platform. The development process included three stages: (1) determination of principles and requirements of the app through prehabilitation research team meetings; (2) app prototype design using the Appy Pie platform; and (3) app evaluation by clinicians and exercise and fitness specialists, technical professionals from Appy Pie, and non-team-member users.

Results: We developed a prototype of the app with the core focus on a multidisciplinary prehabilitation program with accessory features to improve engagement and adherence to the mHealth intervention as well as research-focused features to evaluate the effects of the program on frailty status, health-related quality of life, and anxiety level among patients awaiting elective surgery. Evaluations by research members and random users (n=8) were consistently positive.

Conclusions: This mobile app has great potential for improving and evaluating the effectiveness of the multidisciplinary prehabilitation intervention in the format of mHealth in future.

Keywords: elective surgery; health applications; health apps; mobile app; mobile health; perioperative; perioperative care; prehabilitation; rehabilitation; surgery.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Framework of develoment of the cell phone app for prehabilitation. BFR: blood flow restriction.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Flowchart of the prehabilitation app. BFR: blood flow restriction.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Overview of the home page and accessory features of the prehabilitation app.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Examples of the blood flow restriction exercise, daily log, and self-report questionnaire features in the UT Prehab app.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Results of the questionnaire evaluating the usability of the app from non–team members (n=8). Error bars indicate SD values.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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