Pilot implementation and user preferences of a Bariatric After-care application
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Article type: Research Article
Authors: Zhang, Melvyn W.B.a; * | Ho, Roger C.M.b | Hawa, Raedc | Sockalingam, Sanjeevc
Affiliations: [a] National HealthCare Group, Singapore | [b] Department of Psychological Medicine, National University Healthcare Systems, Singapore | [c] Centre for Mental Health, University Health Network, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author: Melvyn Zhang, Level 9, Department of Psychological Medicine, National University Healthcare Systems (NUHS) Tower Block, 5 Lower Kent Ridge Road, 119074, Singapore. Tel.: +65 7725555; Fax: 65 7725555; E-mail:melvynzhangweibin@gmail.com
Abstract: BACKGROUND: The respective rates of obesity in Canada and the United states are estimated to be 24.1% and 34.1%. Due to the increased incidence of obesity, Bariatric surgery has been recognized as one of the treatment options. Patients who have undergone Bariatric surgery tend to need chronic long-term follow-up with a multi-disciplinary team. In the past decade, there has been massive advancemcent and development in Internet, Web-based and Smartphone technologies. However, there seemed to be a pacuity of applications in this area that enables post-bariatric patients to self-manage their own condition. In addition, past research have highlighted the limited evidence based with regards to currently available bariatric applications, mainly due to the lack of medical professionals involvement. OBJECTIVE: Our current research objective is to illustrate the development of a Bariatric After-care smartphone application and to highlight user preferences with regards to the features integrated within the application. METHODOLOGY: The Bariatric Aftercare application was developed between the months of March 2014 to April 2014. Making use of low-cost online web-based application developmental technologies, the authors embarked on the development of the web-based application. Patients who attended their routine follow-up appointments are given the links to the web-based application. They were also recruited to participate in an online user evaluation survey to identify their preferences with regards to the features integrated. RESULTS: Since the inception of the web-based application to date, there has been a cumulative total of 385 unique assess to the online web-based application. There is a slight change in the confidence levels of the participants with regards to using the application to help them self-manage their own condition. The majority of the users have indicated that they preferred the information pertaining to what happens during each consult with members of the multidisciplinary team and also greatly valued the feature with regards to the ability to re-schedule their appointments. The vast majority also found the additional resources to be helpful. CONCLUSIONS: This is one of the first studies to demonstrate the potential use of smartphone innovations in Bariatric After-care self-management. The current study has shown that users are generally receptive towards such an innovative implementation and has also highlighted some of their preferences with regards to such a self-management application for self-management of their health condition post bariatric surgery. In addition, the authors have also managed to demonstrate how clinicians could be involved in the formulation of a bariatric care application, which has an evidence base.
Keywords: Bariatric surgery, obesity, chronic disease management, technology, clinical management, smartphone, mobile phones, smartphone applications
DOI: 10.3233/THC-151025
Journal: Technology and Health Care, vol. 23, no. 6, pp. 729-736, 2015
