Smartphone Surgery: How Technology Can Transform Practice

Abstract

Rural trauma care has been regarded as being the "challenge for the next decade." Trauma patients in rural areas face more struggles than their urban counterparts because of the absence of specialized trauma care, delay in providing immediate care to trauma victims, and longer transport times to reach a trauma center. Telemedicine is a promising tool for facilitating rural trauma care. This stellar tool creates a real-time link between a remotely located specialist and the local healthcare provider, especially during the initial management of the trauma patient, involving resuscitation and even intubation. However, the high cost of purchasing, setting up, and maintaining all the needed equipment has made telemedicine an expensive proposition for rural hospitals, which frequently have limited budgets. But recently, new improvements in communication technology have made smartphones an indispensable part of daily life, even in rural areas. These devices have great potential to improve patient care and enhance medical education because of their wide adoption and ease of use. In this article, we describe our initial teletrauma experience and the effect of smartphone implementation in patient care and medical education at the University of Arizona Medical Center in Tucson.

Advancing Trauma and Emergency Education Through Virtual Presence

“…Social media as well as multiple Bmobile apps^have been an integral part of this advancement. The small size, simplicity of use, wide availability, obvious mobility, continuous Internet connectivity, and ease of telecommunication are valuable assets for the applicability of smartphones in telemedicine and virtual presence [16]. In addition, advancements in the ability of smartphones to take pictures or videos have played an integral role in management of the injured patient and trauma education [16].…”

“…The small size, simplicity of use, wide availability, obvious mobility, continuous Internet connectivity, and ease of telecommunication are valuable assets for the applicability of smartphones in telemedicine and virtual presence [16]. In addition, advancements in the ability of smartphones to take pictures or videos have played an integral role in management of the injured patient and trauma education [16]. In many institutions, photographs of patient injuries taken by smartphones have been used daily at sign-out sessions, transferred into patient medical records and utilized for follow-up appointments and continuity of care [16][17][18].…”

“…In addition, advancements in the ability of smartphones to take pictures or videos have played an integral role in management of the injured patient and trauma education [16]. In many institutions, photographs of patient injuries taken by smartphones have been used daily at sign-out sessions, transferred into patient medical records and utilized for follow-up appointments and continuity of care [16][17][18]. This application has enhanced the educational experience of all trauma staff and personnel allowing individuals to see various injuries and how they were managed as opposed to trying to verbally describe the situation.…”

“…Furthermore, we have been able to use these images during multidisciplinary conferences to help consulting services understand the overall condition of the injured patient prior to, or after, their involvement in order to improve upon patient care. Finally, this application of smartphones allows for better sign-out between trauma teams giving a trauma team that did not see the patient initially the opportunity to become more familiar with the patient, leading to better care and enhanced educational opportunities [16][17][18]. Sign-outs are routinely a precarious time for patient care and resident education.…”

“…The camera provided on newer smartphones is far superior in quality to the old computerbased devices and appliances traditionally used in telemedicine [16]. The high-definition recording, ease of use, sophisticated features, and compact size of smartphones allows them significant mobility making them an extremely valuable tool for providing the best patient care through telemedicine, especially for healthcare providers on the go.…”