Back to Search
Start Over
Feasibility and safety of surgical wound remote follow-up by smart phone in appendectomy: A pilot study
- Source :
- Annals of Medicine and Surgery
- Publication Year :
- 2017
- Publisher :
- Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health), 2017.
-
Abstract
- Introduction The objective of the present study is to assess the safety and feasibility of the use of telemedicine-based services for surgical wound care and to measure patient satisfaction with telemedicine-based follow-up. Material and methods 24 patients were included, they were provided with a corporate mail address. On day 7 after surgery patients sent, via email, an image of their surgical wound together with a completed questionnaire in order to obtain an early diagnosis. Two independent physicians studied this information and the histologic analysis of the specimen. On day 8, all patients underwent face-to-face office examination by a third physician and all of them completed a satisfaction questionnaire at the end of the study. Results The use of telemedicine-based services showed a sensitivity of 100%, a specificity of 91.6%, a positive predictive value of 75% and a negative predictive value of 100%. Degree of concordance between the two physicians, as regards the necessity of face-to-face follow-up yielded a kappa coefficient of 0.42 (standard error 0.25 and confidence interval 95% (0.92–0.08), which means a moderate agreement between the two evaluations. 94% of patients were satisfied with telemedicine-based follow-up and 93% showed their preference for this procedure over conventional methods. Conclusions The telemedicine-based follow-up, has proven to be feasible and safe for the evaluation of early postoperative complications. Patients reported high levels of satisfaction with the procedure. Telemedicine-based follow-up could become standard practice with the development of a specific mobile application.<br />Highlights • A system to provide follow-up after surgery without the need of physical examination. • Using a cell phone and a mail address follow-up is achieved. • Feasibility and security of this system was assessed. • E-mail follow-up achieved high sensibility and specificity rates compared to face-to-face follow-up. • Patients were satisfied with telemedicine follow-up and preferred it to face-to-face regular examinations.
- Subjects :
- medicine.medical_specialty
Telemedicine
020205 medical informatics
Smart phone
E-mail
02 engineering and technology
03 medical and health sciences
Surgical wound care
0302 clinical medicine
Patient satisfaction
0202 electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering
Appendectomy
Medicine
Surgical wound
030212 general & internal medicine
Original Research
business.industry
Follow-up
General Medicine
medicine.disease
Surgery
Mobile phone
Medical emergency
business
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 20490801
- Volume :
- 21
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Annals of Medicine & Surgery
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....97188a359df72f9085aa72f805d4bcf8