Assessing Orthopedic Patients' Perspectives on and Adherence to Perioperative Digital Experience Sampling.

Area of Science:

• Digital Health
• Patient-Reported Outcomes
• Surgical Recovery

Background:

• The experience sampling method (ESM) is a data collection technique where participants respond to random prompts.
• ESM allows real-time assessment of patient mood, context, and pain levels.
• Digital tools offer a modern approach to implementing ESM in clinical settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate patient opinions on a digital ESM tool used perioperatively.
• To assess the usability and patient satisfaction with the PsyMate app after total knee arthroplasty (TKA).

Main Methods:

• A digital ESM app (PsyMate) delivered 10 daily prompts to TKA patients.
• Prompts included 23 items on mood, context, and pain.
• Patient feedback was collected via a standardized questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive statistics.

Main Results:

• 31 out of 40 TKA patients completed the evaluation.
• The app achieved an average user-friendliness rating of 8.3/10.
• Dissatisfaction was noted regarding notification frequency (n=10) and noise (n=14); higher pain correlated with lower completion rates.

Conclusions:

• This study provides the first evaluation of a digital ESM app in postoperative patients.
• The PsyMate app demonstrated satisfactory ratings but highlighted areas for improvement.
• Patient feedback is crucial for optimizing digital health tools in surgical care.