Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Department of Anesthesiology, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
J Med Syst. 2021 Jan 4;45(1):7. doi: 10.1007/s10916-020-01699-z.
Mobile phone applications (apps) have been used for patient follow-up in the postoperative period, specifically to assess for complications and patient satisfaction. Few studies have evaluated their use in regional anesthesia. The objective of this study was to compare follow-up response rates using manual phone calls versus an automated patient outreach (APO) app for peripheral nerve block patients. We hypothesized that the response rate would be higher in the APO group. A mobile app, "JeffAnesthesia," was developed, which sends notifications to patients to answer survey questions in the app. We randomly assigned patients who received peripheral nerve blocks for postoperative pain to either a manual phone call or an APO app group, with follow-up in each category occurring between postoperative days (POD) 14-21 and 90-100. In total, 60 patients were assigned to the phone call group and 60 patients to the APO app group. Between POD 14-21, 9 (15%) patients were reached in the manual phone call arm, and 16 (26.7%) patients were reached in the APO arm (p = 0.117). At POD 90-100, follow-up was successful with 5 (8.2%) in the manual phone call group vs. 3 (5.0%) patients in the APO app group (p = 0.300). Overall response rate was poor, with comparable response rates between groups. The APO method may reduce time spent by anesthesia staff on follow-up calls, but our data do not suggest this method improves response rates significantly. Further studies are needed to better understand the reasons for the poor response rate and strategies for improvement.
手机应用程序（apps）已被用于术后患者随访，特别是评估并发症和患者满意度。很少有研究评估其在区域麻醉中的应用。本研究的目的是比较使用手动电话与自动患者随访（APO）应用程序对周围神经阻滞患者进行随访的应答率。我们假设 APO 组的应答率会更高。开发了一款名为“JeffAnesthesia”的移动应用程序，它会向患者发送通知，要求他们在应用程序中回答调查问题。我们将接受术后疼痛周围神经阻滞的患者随机分配到手动电话或 APO 应用程序组，在每个组中，随访分别在术后第 14-21 天和第 90-100 天进行。共有 60 名患者被分配到电话组，60 名患者被分配到 APO 应用程序组。在术后第 14-21 天，手动电话组有 9 名（15%）患者被联系到，APO 组有 16 名（26.7%）患者被联系到（p=0.117）。在术后第 90-100 天，电话组有 5 名（8.2%）患者成功随访，APO 应用程序组有 3 名（5.0%）患者成功随访（p=0.300）。总体应答率较差，两组之间的应答率相当。APO 方法可以减少麻醉师在随访电话上花费的时间，但我们的数据并没有表明这种方法能显著提高应答率。需要进一步研究以更好地了解应答率低的原因和改进策略。
