“This app addresses what patients ask us for daily- more information about their risks that is clearly presented. Empowering patients with this information could improve their surgery experience,” - Dr. Daniel McIsaacPatients who used a made-in-Ottawa app to calculate their risk of complications, hospitalization and death after surgery understood these risks better than patients who received standard care, according to a study published in the Canadian Journal of Anesthesia.
While many patients would like to receive this personalized risk information, most do not get it. To address this gap, Dr. Daniel McIsaac’s team partnered with patient advisors as well developers from Dr. Kumanan Wilson’s team to create a tablet app that patients use in the waiting room before an anesthesiology consultation.
Patients enter their health data and the ways that they hope to benefit from surgery into the app. Then they receive a print-out of their personalized risk estimate to discuss with their physician. The team compared the experiences of 93 patients who used the app with 90 who did not.
On average, patients who used the app had better knowledge of their risks, and were slightly more satisfied with their care in preparation for surgery than those who did not. Ninety-seven percent said they would use the app again before future surgeries.
Researchers are now working to integrate the PREDICT app into the Ottawa Hospital's new electronic health record (Epic), while also working with patients on how to best provide access directly to patients using an online portal.
“This app addresses what patients ask us for daily- more information about their risks that is clearly presented. Empowering patients with this information could improve their surgery experience,” said Dr. Daniel McIsaac, associate scientist and anesthesiologist at The Ottawa Hospital and Chair in Innovative Perioperative Care at the University of Ottawa.
Core Resources: Ottawa Methods Centre, Patient and Family Advisory Program
Authors: Emily Hladkowicz, David Yachnin, Laura Boland, Kumanan Wilson, Annette McKinnon, Kira Hawrysh, Terry Hawrysh, Cameron Bell, Katherine Atkinson, Carl van Walraven, Monica Taljaard, Kednapa Thavorn, Dawn Stacey, Homer Yang, Christopher Pysyk, Husein Moloo, Doug Manuel, David MacDonald, Luke T. Lavallée, Sylvain Gagne, Alan J. Forster, Gregory L. Bryson, Daniel I. McIsaac
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