Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Nov 16:30:101549.
doi: 10.1016/j.artd.2024.101549. eCollection 2024 Dec.

Evaluation of a Mobile App to Assist Patient Education and Research in Arthroplasty

Leina Suzuki  1 , Francis Connon  2 , Selin Munir  3   4 , Sarah Piplica  5 , Hemant Pandit  6 , Daevyd Rodda  2
Affiliations

Evaluation of a Mobile App to Assist Patient Education and Research in Arthroplasty

Leina Suzuki et al. Arthroplast Today. .

Abstract

Background: Paper-based patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) and patient education can assist in improving outcomes but is administratively burdensome. Mobile phone applications ('apps') can distribute extensive information and PROMs at relevant time points. This study aimed to assess the suitability of an app to guide postoperative management and record PROMs based on satisfaction and compliance.

Methods: Thirty-four patients who were scheduled for a total hip/knee arthroplasty were enrolled into the study. Automatic notifications were sent by the app to complete PROMs at the appropriate time points. Patients were reminded via phone call if PROMs were not completed. An app satisfaction questionnaire was also completed, where a high score represented satisfaction with the app.

Results: Patients remained satisfied with the app throughout the study with a mean score of 19.0 out of 25. 57% found the app to be helpful with completing surveys, with 63% preferring the app over paper handouts. Majority of the participants (68%) stated that they would use the app again. There was an overall mean compliance of 78% at all time points. Most patients (82%) required at least one phone call reminder, with 18% of patients completing their PROMs prompted by the app notification alone.

Conclusions: A mobile phone app can be useful for both distributing patient education and collecting PROMs. PROMs collected using a mobile phone app still caused some administrative burden with many participants requiring multiple reminders to complete their questionnaires. While paper-forms will still be required for some patients, most found the app preferable to paper-form.

Keywords: App; Patient education; Postoperative care; Smartphone; ePROMs.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Graph representing patient satisfaction survey results where each pie graph represents a question from the survey. POP-App, Patient Optimized Pathway Application.
Figure 2
Figure 2
PROMs compliance at each time point. HOOS, Hip disability and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score; KOOS, Knee injury and Osteoarthritis Score. HOOS, Hip disability and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score; KOOS, Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score; PROMs, patient-reported outcome measures.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Graph representing percentage of follow-up calls required.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Andrawis J., Akhavan S., Chan V., Lehil M., Pong D., Bozic K.J. Higher preoperative patient activation associated with better patient-reported outcomes after total joint arthroplasty. Clin Orthop Relat Res. 2015;473:2688–2697. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Jayakumar P., Di J., Fu J., Craig J., Joughin V., Nadarajah V., et al. A patient-focused technology-enabled program improves outcomes in primary total hip and knee replacement surgery. JB JS Open Access. 2017;2 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Timmers T., Janssen L., van der Weegen W., Das D., Marijnissen W.-J., Hannink G., et al. The effect of an app for day-to-day postoperative care education on patients with total knee replacement: randomized controlled trial. JMIR Mhealth Uhealth. 2019;7 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Campbell K.J., Louie P.K., Bohl D.D., Edmiston T., Mikhail C., Li J., et al. A Novel, automated text-messaging system is effective in patients undergoing total joint arthroplasty. J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2019;101:145–151. - PubMed
    1. Shah K.N., Hofmann M.R., Schwarzkopf R., Pourmand D., Bhatia N.N., Rafijah G., et al. Patient-reported outcome measures: how do digital tablets stack up to paper forms? A randomized, controlled study. Am J Orthop. 2016;45:E451–E457. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources