Surgical Patients Follow-Up by Smartphone-Based Applications: A Systematic Literature Review

Background: Telemedicine technology with the development of mobile applications (apps) has provided a new approach for the follow-up of patients. Objectives: This study aims to carry out an overview of the studies related to the use of mobile apps in the follow-up of surgical patients. Methods: In this study, an electronic search of four databases included PubMed, Scopus, Embase, and web of science was carried out. It included studies in the English language from the beginning of 2009 to June 2019. Results: Twenty-three articles were selected for the final analysis, that all of them were published from 2015 onwards. In most studies, fourteen to thirty-days follow-up period for different outpatient and inpatient surgeries was planned. Apps' components in the studies mostly include indexes for evaluation of recovery quality, pain level, and the surgical site infection. The most important achievement of studies included feasibility, early detection of complications, reducing unscheduled in-person visits, patients' self-efficiency, and satisfaction. Conclusions: Our review showed that mHealth-based interventions have potential that may support better management of post-discharge systematic follow-up of surgery patients.