Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust has shared that over 1,000 patients have been enrolled on a care platform designed to connect patients with their surgeon and care team, with the aim of supporting them through joint replacement surgery preparation and recovery.
The mymobility platform is designed to support patients before surgery by helping them to understand their condition, develop their knowledge on how to optimise health prior to surgery, and providing information on what to expect on the day itself as well as how to prepare for recovery. When it comes to recovery, the platform helps care teams to provide support to patients through delivery of surgeon-assigned care plans including progress reports, scheduled exercises and reminders.
Additionally, the trust adds, the platform allows personal recovery targets to be tracked in real time so that activity plans can be changed if needed, and it is compatible with some smartwatches so that additional metrics such as heart rate and steps can be monitored.
Northumbria Healthcare highlights that an ongoing study conducted on 774 patients using the platform; looking at answers from patients 14 and 44 days post-operation, the study found reduced re-admission rates following surgery when compared to previous care (2.5 percent versus 6.7 percent), with a reduced rate of emergency department visits (2.5 percent versus 8.2 percent).
Professor Mike Reed, clinical director for trauma and orthopaedics at Northumbria Healthcare, comments: “Preparing for and recovering from surgery are key parts of the journey for joint replacement patients and we are always looking for ways to improve the support we provide.
“We are excited that we can now offer the mymobility system to our patients, as it enables us to maintain close links and help manage their care easily and effectively. We always want patients to have the right information and advice, and the platform helps us to do that as well.”
Last year, we covered how Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust collaborated with Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, to take part in the Digitally Enhanced Rehabilitation in Cardiac Patients (DERIC) care platform trial.
In other news from the region, last summer saw us share how Northumbria University introduced an interactive platform for health and care students.
