Mobile apps for orthopedic surgeons: how useful are they?

Abstract

Smartphone apps have become an integral part of medical training and practice in the hospital and clinical setting. However, to ensure the safety of patient care, it remains imperative that physicians and physician-educators alike continue to monitor and recognize the strengths and limitations of these powerful tools. Orthopaedic surgeons have widely adopted the use of smartphones and tablets and consequently, a number of resources have emerged to assist orthopaedic trainees and providers in discovering and assessing the most appropriate apps for their practice. The purpose of this review article is to advise readers on how best to identify apps for orthopaedic surgeons, summarize the most popular and useful existing apps, present the current available data to support their use, and provide recommendations to the orthopaedic community regarding safe and responsible mobile technology use in clinical practice.

Mobile rehabilitation support versus usual care in patients after total hip or knee arthroplasty: study protocol for a randomised controlled trial

“…Thus, in addition to the outcomes that were commonly assessed in previous studies (i.e., pain, physical function, range of motion and HRQoL), psychological outcomes regarding depression, anxiety and self-efficacy should be included in the evaluation of the effectiveness of mobile appbased rehabilitation [11,32,33]. Furthermore, the application of a theoretical framework was seldom reported in the development of existing mobile app programmes, which may affect the programmes' quality and utility [34,35].…”