Development and initial evaluation of a point-of-care educational app on medical topics in orthogeriatrics

Abstract

IntroductionResearch by AOTrauma’s orthogeriatrics education taskforce identified ongoing educational needs for surgeons and trainees worldwide regarding the medical management of older adults with a fracture. To address practicing surgeons’ preference for increased use of mobile learning, a point-of-care educational app was planned by a committee of experienced faculty. The goals were to deliver the app to surgeons, trainees, and other healthcare professionals, to measure usage, and to evaluate the impact on patient care.Materials and methodsThe committee of geriatricians and surgeons designed and developed four modules on osteoporosis, delirium, anticoagulation, and pain based on published evidence and the content was programmed into mobile app formats. A registration form was integrated and a 14-question online evaluation survey was administered to users.ResultsThe AOTrauma Orthogeriatrics app was installed by 17,839 users worldwide between September 2014 and October 2015: Android smartphones (44 %), iPhones (32 %), iPads (15 %), Android tablets (9 %). 920 users registered and 100 completed the online evaluation: orthopedic/trauma surgeons (67 %), residents/fellows (20 %), and other professionals (13 %). Ratings for all aspects were 4 or higher on a 1–5 Likert scale (5 = Excellent). 80 % of evaluation respondents found the answer to their question or educational need on their last visit, and 26 of 55 respondents (47 %) reported making a change in an aspect of their management of patients as a result of their learning from the app.ConclusionThe orthogeriatrics app reached its intended audiences and was rated highly as a method of providing education to help improve patient care. Content input by experienced faculty and app improvements based on user feedback were key contributors to successful implementation.

Theme Trends and Knowledge Structure on Mobile Health Apps: Bibliometric Analysis

“…The system development of mobile health apps mainly includes a user-computer interface, algorithms, privacy, design, and computer security, and it follows the principles of user-centered, convenient operation, safety, and stability [ 22 , 23 ]. As a new product, the effectiveness, quality, and accuracy of various mobile health apps used in health care need to be continuously evaluated through academic research [ 24 , 25 ].…”

Geriatric Helper: An mHealth Application to Support Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment

“…mHealth approaches are transversal to a wide set of application domains such as cardiac [ 31 ], trauma [ 32 ] and pain assessment [ 33 ], obesity and diabetes [ 34 ], mental health [ 35 , 36 ], medication adherence [ 37 ], and chronic diseases [ 38 ] and target: (a) healthcare professionals and care givers (e.g., [ 39 ]), to support patient assessment and monitoring; (b) patients, from all ages [ 40 ], for self-management, and as providers of relevant information for their condition; and (c) for the training of students and professionals, in certain domains (e.g., [ 41 ]), and as a way to bring caregivers onboard, by having them adopt guidelines and practises [ 42 , 43 ].…”

“…To the best of our knowledge, one important aspect that is also missing in existing applications concerns the formative aspects, an important part of our goals, and recognized as an important requirement to move CGA forward in geriatric care [ 54 ]. In fact, this kind of approach has already been considered in other areas [ 41 , 42 , 43 , 55 ] with success. However, it is important to note that care should be taken since providing the clinicians with something that only partially supports CGA might, at some point, be taken as defining what a CGA actually is [ 14 ], which might limit its potential.…”

Chances and challenges of comprehensive geriatric assessment training for healthcare providers

“…This latter phase, in addition to improvement through gaining experience, might be further deepened by conveying the use of CGA tools including apps to assess multidimensional prognosis and thereby improving clinical decision making in older patients. [32][33][34][35] Indeed, it has been recently shown that targeted educational events using operatively aligned outcome-centered learning objectives improves the effects of geriatric multidimensional interventions on patient overall outcomes as assessed by the multidimensional prognostic index (MPI). In these preliminary observations, [36][37][38] a team specifically trained based upon constructive alignment of theoretic learning objectives with practical learning outcomes, produces more significant improvements in the CGAbased MPI -already shown to accurately measure overall in-hospital disease/recovery course 39 -from admission to discharge with respect to standard of care.…”