Home to Stay Mobile App for Colorectal Surgery

Summary

Background: Colorectal surgery includes surgery for colorectal cancer, inflammatory bowel disease and other benign diseases such as diverticulitis. In Canada, approximately 21,000 colorectal surgeries are performed each year. Patients undergoing colorectal surgery face high rates of unplanned hospital visits including readmission to hospital and Emergency Room (ER) visits. These unplanned hospital visits lead to significant distress and anxiety for patients and increased health care costs.

Research Aims: The goal is to evaluate the use of an integrated discharge monitoring system with a mobile application (app) to support colorectal surgery patients at home following discharge from hospital.

Methods: The study will include 3 hospitals across Canada. Patients will be assigned to either a control group or intervention group. Control group patients will receive standard follow up care after going home following surgery. Intervention group patients will be enrolled in an integrated discharge monitoring system using an app to monitor their progress at home following discharge after surgery. The main outcomes are to measure the number of patients with unplanned hospital visits within 30 days of discharge following surgery, the quality of patient recovery and confidence managing one's own health care. Patients are eligible if they are being discharge home after having elective colorectal surgery, are 18 years or older and speak and understand English or French. At the end of the study, the outcomes between the control group and intervention group will be compared to look for important differences.

Expected Outcomes: It is expected that the results of this study will show that the integrated discharge monitoring system will lead to a significant improvement in the quality of patient recovery and self-confidence with one's own health care, as well as significantly reduce the number of unplanned hospital visits for patients undergoing colorectal surgery in Canada.

Conditions

• Colorectal Disorders

Interventions

OTHER

Mobile App

The app will be provided to patients in hospital on post-operative day 3. On the day of discharge, the patient will be emailed a "Daily Health Check" and receive subsequent "Daily Health Check" emails on Day 1-14, 21 and 30 days following discharge. The "Daily Health Check" is a tailored questionnaire to elicit their symptoms and status of post-operative recovery. After the patient has completed the "Daily Health Check", a "Daily Health Check Summary" is emailed to the patient that summarizes their responses and provides appropriate action recommendations based on their responses ranging from: (i) suggestions for educational modules, (ii) expect a call from your health care team in the next 24 hours, (iii) call your surgeon's office today or (iv) go to the nearest emergency room. The patient's "Daily Health Check" responses are displayed in real time on a secure website that automatically "red flags" extreme responses to alert the health care team to contact the patient by telephone.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Mount Sinai Hospital, Canada

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Erin Kennedy · MOUNT SINAI HOSPITAL

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2021-05-25

Primary Completion

2026-03-31

Completion

2026-12-31

Countries

• Canada

Study Locations