Smartphones that can capture images with crystalline clarity can help monitor patients who have undergone emergency abdominal surgery for surgical-site infections (SSIs). This  allows physicians to diagnose them earlier in the postoperative period before they progress into a much bigger problem, reports a review published in npj Digital Medicine. 

In a large -scale study, entitled TWIST Trial, out of 492 patients, who had undergone major surgical procedures (almost three-quarters of them being done laparoscopically, 223 were randomized to the smartphone intervention, while the remaining 269 patients were randomized to routine care. Patients in the smartphone group were contacted on days 3, 7, and 15 postoperatively and directed to an online site where they were asked about their wound and any symptoms they were experiencing. If symptomatic, they were then asked to take a picture of their wound and upload it to a secure website where a member of the surgical team would assess the photographs along with the patient’s responses for signs of wound infection. Patients were followed for 30 days after surgery to document whether they had subsequently been diagnosed with an SSI.

“Patients and staff have become used to having remote consultations and we have shown we can effectively and safely monitor wounds after surgery while patients recover at home — this is likely to become the new normal,” says Kenneth McLean, MBChB, University of Edinburgh, Scotland, who led the study.