Smartphones and e-tablets in perioperative medicine

Area of Science:

• Digital Health
• Surgical Care Innovation
• Medical Technology

Background:

• Smartphones and e-tablets are ubiquitous, offering unique opportunities to improve surgical care.
• Digital tools can be leveraged across the entire patient journey, from prehabilitation to rehabilitation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the potential of smartphones and e-tablets in enhancing surgical care.
• To identify applications of digital technology in pre-operative, intra-operative, and post-operative phases.

Main Methods:

• Review of digital applications (Apps), serious games, text messaging, and connected sensors for surgical care.
• Exploration of smartphone/e-tablet integration with medical devices like echo probes and sensors.
• Examination of electronic checklists for enhanced patient-provider communication and tracking.

Main Results:

• Pre-surgery: Apps can optimize risk factor control and adherence to recommendations.
• Intra-surgery: Apps can assist with fluid management and blood loss estimation.
• Post-surgery: Connected sensors enable remote monitoring of vital signs and early complication detection. Smartphones can function as ultrasound devices.

Conclusions:

• Digital tools offer significant potential for improving surgical care quality and patient outcomes.
• Further research is needed to validate the impact of digital health on outcomes, complication detection, readmissions, and costs.