The effect of eHealth support in the postoperative process
Albert Schweizer Hospital - HMC - Jeroen Bosch Hospital - Anna Hospital - VieCuri
Postoperative e-health: The daily guidance of patients with an app during the 4 weeks following their Total Knee Replacement surgery.
This study aims to investigate whether the use of an app that provides patients with daily information could improve their self-management, pain management, satisfaction with the information provided, and functional outcomes.
Background
n modern medicine, patients are often discharged from the hospital within 2 or 3 days after their total knee replacement surgery. To enhance these patients' ability to self-manage, they are provided with information on pain management, physiotherapy exercises, wound care, and daily activities such as showering, for example. This information is provided by doctors, nurses, and physiotherapists. However, patients are often unable to process all the given information and therefore frequently leave the hospital with limited knowledge and confidence in their ability to care for themselves.
Results
This blinded, randomized study was conducted in 5 hospitals. A total of 213 patients participated.
"The intervention group performs significantly better in self-management, pain management, quality of life, functional limitations, and satisfaction."
A total of 114 patients were allocated to the intervention group and 99 patients to the control group. The intervention group performed significantly better in self-management, pain management, quality of life, functional limitations, and satisfaction. Additionally, a trend towards a reduction in healthcare consumption was observed.
Conclusion & Publication
Providing patients with an app that informs them daily about their total knee replacement surgery proves to be a valuable addition to standard care. It not only increases self-management, satisfaction, and pain management but also has a significant impact on knee outcome scores.
The research has also been published in the JMIR mHealth journal. View the abstract and the full scientific article here
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