A Mobile App With Multimodality Prehabilitation Programs for Patients Awaiting Elective Surgery: Development and Usability Study

Abstract

Background Complying with a prehabilitation program is difficult for patients who will undergo surgery, owing to transportation challenges and a limited intervention time window. Mobile health (mHealth) using smartphone apps has the potential to remove barriers and improve the effectiveness of prehabilitation. Objective This study aimed to develop a mobile app as a tool for facilitating a multidisciplinary prehabilitation protocol involving blood flow restriction training and sport nutrition supplementation. Methods The app was developed using “Appy Pie,” a noncoding app development platform. The development process included three stages: (1) determination of principles and requirements of the app through prehabilitation research team meetings; (2) app prototype design using the Appy Pie platform; and (3) app evaluation by clinicians and exercise and fitness specialists, technical professionals from Appy Pie, and non–team-member users. Results We developed a prototype of the app with the core focus on a multidisciplinary prehabilitation program with accessory features to improve engagement and adherence to the mHealth intervention as well as research-focused features to evaluate the effects of the program on frailty status, health-related quality of life, and anxiety level among patients awaiting elective surgery. Evaluations by research members and random users (n=8) were consistently positive. Conclusions This mobile app has great potential for improving and evaluating the effectiveness of the multidisciplinary prehabilitation intervention in the format of mHealth in future.

Blood Flow Restriction in Oncological Patients: Advantages and Safety Considerations

“…Once the criteria for selection were applied, 584 articles were found in the different electronic databases, After duplicates were removed, abstracts were read, and the inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied, only five articles were selected [41][42][43][44][45] (Figure 1). Two of these were randomized clinical trials [44,45] and three were observational studies [41][42][43].…”

“…Regarding the type of cancer studied in the different articles, abdominal cancers awaiting surgery [41][42][43] and breast cancer [44,45] were found (Table 2).…”

“…Overall, 164 participants were included: 58.3% female, aged between 21 and 75 years. The sample size ranged from 8 subjects in the research performed by Wang and co-authors [43] to 92 in the Wootenstudy [42].…”

“…Regarding the type of cancer studied in the different articles, abdominal cancers awaiting surgery [41][42][43] and breast cancer [44,45] were found (Table 2). In 40% of the articles, the patients had completed the chemotherapy cycle and were diagnosed with cardiotoxicity caused by this treatment [44,45].…”

“…In 40% of the articles, the patients had completed the chemotherapy cycle and were diagnosed with cardiotoxicity caused by this treatment [44,45]. In the remaining 60%, the patients were oncology patients with abdominal cancer awaiting surgery [41][42][43]. Among the types of abdominal cancer addressed in the studies were pancreatic, colon, esophageal, rectal, retroperitoneal, small intestine, jejunum, and gall bladder cancer.…”