Mobile Applications in Clinical and Perioperative Care for Anesthesia: Narrative Review

Abstract

Background The increasing use of smartphones by providers and patients alike demonstrates that digital health utilizing mobile applications has the potential to transform perioperative care and education in anesthesia. Objective This literature review describes the current scope of the use of mobile applications in anesthesiology. Methods Literature was searched using PubMed, Scopus, and clinicaltrials.gov for articles published from January 1, 2010, through April 1, 2020. Only English language studies were included. Articles were included if they examined the use of a mobile health application in the setting of anesthesia or the perioperative (immediate preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative) period. Studies were excluded if they explored video interventions or did not examine the feasibility or efficacy of the mobile app. Results We included 29 articles, and three areas of clinical functionality were identified: patient-centered care (preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative), systems-based improvement, and medical education. Several studies demonstrate the feasibility and reliability of mobile apps in these areas, but many are only tested for efficacy in simulated environments or with small patient samples Conclusions Mobile health applications show promise in improving communication between anesthesiologists, improving workflow efficiency, enhancing medical education, and reducing hospital costs. However, there is a need for validation and improvement before full implementation by the provider, patients, and hospital systems. Future studies are needed to demonstrate meaningful health outcomes to create guidelines and recommendations specific to the application of mobile technology to health care.

Experiences of Parental Presence in the Induction of Anesthesia in a Canadian Tertiary Pediatric Hospital: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…Parents in the PPIA cohort also reported their presence as beneficial to the child. While our study did not assess either the parent's or the child's anxiety during anesthesia induction, studies have shown that in most cases, parental presence does not appear to affect either the parent's or the child's anxiety -premedicating children, toys, videos, and internet-based cognitive therapy; the presence of child life specialists or clowns are viable alternatives for reducing the child's anxiety [1,5,6,[29][30][31][32][33][34][35]. Several parents in the no-PPIA cohort believed that PPIA would have been beneficial for themselves and suggested that it be offered to all parents always, and they were less likely to consider the child's age or coping as a factor informing PPIA.…”

“…However, those who had used online resources found them useful for this purpose. This finding is useful for administrators and clinicians who may be developing training materials for PPIA and will need to ensure these meet a variety of parental preferences for online or inperson information [22,[31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45].…”

The Role of Telemedicine in Prehospital Traumatic Hand Injury Evaluation

“…The widespread use of mobile devices worldwide not only facilitates telemedicine delivery via video calls and regular voice calls, but also through mobile applications. This telemedicine interface is being explored [ 69 ], with varying results depending on the medical area where they are implemented [ 70 , 71 , 72 ]. Many current descriptions of mobile applications for trauma patients focus on triaging patients in disaster situations, as described in a recent review by Montano et al [ 73 , 74 ].…”

Ambulatory anesthesia and discharge: an update around guidelines and trends

“…Phone follow-ups during the first postoperative is of value. Various mobile app and telemonitoring techniques is also increasingly introduced [59,60 ▪ ,61 ▪ ]. Lee et al investigated the outcome of remote follow-up after SDD following elective minimally invasive colorectal surgeries [24 ▪▪ ,25 ▪▪ ].…”