The Journal of mHealth Vol 2 Issue 2 (Apr 2015) | Page 29

Engaging Patients to Deliver Improved Surgical Outcomes Patients also reported feeling more engaged in their self-management, less anxious about the prospect of undergoing the surgical procedure, and that they felt they had a significantly improved connection to their healthcare team. Paul, a patient involved in the trial, says “The app has many benefits. The reminders during pre-op were very helpful. The postop experience I think is even better. The daily check-in gave me some confidence that everything was going well, and it made me more cognizant and aware of what I needed to do.” The team at SeamlessMD have approached the task of engaging patients along their surgical journey, by identifying key episodes of care within the surgical treatment pathway. The care pathway involved with any surgical procedure is complex (see image), with many stages, which require careful patient and caregiver management to ensure a patient transitions along the pathway in the expected manner. The SeamlessMD platform enables clinical staff to ensure that patients are well-informed and adequately prepared prior to surgery and then subsequently monitor key aspects of the recovery process, thus ensuring that patients are progressing as expected. Using mobile technologies allows the majority of these processes to be conducted in real-time and the necessary valuable clinical insights to also be gained concurrently. The platform also forms a valuable education channel by which physicians and clinicians can ensure that patients have access to approved, relevant resources that can help guide them through their treatment. CEO and founder Joshua, MD, was midway through medical school at the University of Toronto when he began doing research on readmissions. Through his research it became apparent that rates could be noticeably lowered, if patients adhered more closely to their care plan and if providers were better able to monitor their patients’ progress. Re-admissions of a surgical patient can cost upwards of $10,000. Re-admissions in Canada cost in the neighbourhood of $1.8 billion annually, while Medicare in the U.S. spends $25 billion on readmissions each year. Research published by Tulane University Medical Center, in 2012, revealed that from a surgical outpatient cancellation rate of 6.7%, 30% of those cancellations were due to patients not showing up, which in turn led to an average revenue loss of $2,900 per cancellation.1 As healthcare organisations and care providers seek to reduce costs and improve coordinated delivery of care, patient engagement programs are seen as an important tool to help streamline clinical care pathways, and effectively manage unnecessary costs. Today, the SeamlessMD platform is being used for a variety of surgical procdeures at medical centres in Canada and the United States. References 1. Bent, S. Mora, S. Russo, N. Et al. (2012). The Financial Burden of Cancelled Surgeries: Implications for Performance Improvement. Practice Management, Research in Perioperative Management. PM23. n This could be your ad 40% off for all new advertisers Contact [email protected] for more information The Journal of mHealth 27