Smartphone application: a solution for the follow-up of patients with primary hip arthroplasty during COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Introduction
Since the appearance of coronavirus disease-2019, the challenge is how to follow the recommendations of the WHO, which stressed the importance of social distancing to avoid infection and at the same time provides satisfactory medical services. This study was conducted to evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of the WhatsApp social media program in the postoperative follow-up of patients with primary hip arthroplasty at the time of the pandemic.


Patients and methods
This is a prospective, randomized, comparative study carried out on 167 patients with primary hip arthroplasty. The follow-ups were delivered by a group on the WhatsApp program for all patients. Later on, a reassessment was done by a routine clinical visit. The authors recorded overall satisfaction and time consumption for each method. In addition, any missed clinical or radiological signs during the electronic method.


Results
The electronic visit recorded better satisfaction (96.35 ± 3.21), and less time consumption (39.11 ± 6.41) with no reported missed major clinical or radiological signs in comparison to the routine follow-up. Patients over 50 years, those with an educational level above high school, and patients with a travel distance greater than 100 km recorded statistically significant more satisfaction scores with an electronic visit in comparison to routine visits.


Conclusion
WhatsApp application could be an acceptable and satisfactory tool to follow-up patients with primary hip arthroplasty, and it could be a safe alternative to usual clinical visits at the time of the pandemic.