According to research conducted by Toronto East General Hospital and Seamless Mobile Health, the use of text message reminders and enabling patients to log in their post-operative progress can reduce the risk of cancellations for procedures and can also decrease post-op ER visits. The research will be presented on October 28 during CHEST 2015 at Palais des congrès de Montréal.
Previous research suggests that only 40 percent of patients read the instructions given by doctors before going into surgery and less than 20 percent have the ability to articulate important information contained within those instructions.
For the purpose of this analysis, the researchers created electronic reminders and Web-based modules to improve patient compliance with respect to pre-operative instructions. 167 participants were included and around 98 percent of them said they were satisfied with the tools the mobile product provided. They also had positive feelings about the ways in which the application empowered them and helped them keep track of their progress as well as gain more accessibility to their surgeon.
"We believe this tool has great potential to improve communication with patients, increase patient satisfaction, decrease ER visits, and improve patient outcomes following thoracic surgery," said Dr. Carmine Simone, Toronto East General Hospital physician and lead researcher.
Source: American College of Chest Physicians
Image Credit: jisc.ac.uk
