BACKGROUND Early postoperative discharge after joint arthroplasty may lead to decreased wound monitoring. A mobile woundcare app with an integrated algorithm to detect complications may lead to improved monitoring and earlier treatment of complications. In this study, the ease of use and perceived usefulness of such a mobile app was investigated. OBJECTIVE Primary objective was to investigate the ease of use and perceived usefulness of using a woundcare app. Secondary objectives were the number of alerts created, the amount of days the app was actually used and patient-reported wound infection. METHODS Patients that received a joint arthroplasty were enrolled in a prospective cohort study. During 30 postoperative days, patients scored their surgical wound by daily answering of questions in the app. An inbuilt algorithm advised patients to contact their treating physician if needed. On day 15 and day 30, additional questionnaires in the app investigated ease of use and perceived usefulness. RESULTS Sixty-nine patients were included. Median age was 68 years. Forty-one patients (59.4%) used the app until day 30. Mean grade for ease of use (on a Likert-scale of 1-5) were 4.2 on day 15 and 4.2 on day 30; grades for perceived usefulness were 4.1 on day 15 and 4.0 on day 30. Out of 1317 days of app use, an alert was sent to patients on 29 days (2.2%). Concordance between patient-reported outcome and physician-reported outcome was 80%. CONCLUSIONS Introduction of a woundcare app with an alert communication on possible wound problems resulted in a high perceived usefulness and ease of use. Future studies will focus on validation of the algorithm and the association between postoperative wound leakage and the incidence of prosthetic joint infection.

中文翻译：

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关节置换术后伤口护理的移动应用程序：易用性和实用性。

背景技术关节置换术后的早期术后出院可能导致伤口监测下降。具有用于检测并发症的集成算法的移动伤口护理应用程序可能会改善对并发症的监测和早期治疗。在这项研究中，研究了这种移动应用程序的易用性和感知的实用性。目的主要目的是研究使用伤口护理应用程序的易用性和感知的实用性。次要目标是创建警报的数量，实际使用该应用程序的天数以及患者报告的伤口感染。方法对接受关节置换术的患者进行前瞻性队列研究。在术后30天内，患者通过每天在应用程序中回答问题来对手术伤口进行评分。内置算法建议患者在需要时联系其治疗医师。在第15天和第30天，应用程序中的其他问卷调查了易用性和感知有用性。结果纳入69例患者。中位年龄为68岁。到30天为止，有41位患者（59.4％）使用了该应用程序。易用性的平均等级（李克特量表为1-5）在第15天为4.2，在第30天为4.2；第15天的感知有用等级为4.1，第30天为4.0。在使用应用程序的1317天中，有29天向患者发送了警报（2.2％）。患者报告的结果与医生报告的结果之间的一致性为80％。结论引入了具有针对可能的伤口问题的警报通信的伤口护理应用程序，从而带来了很高的感知有用性和易用性。