Smartphone Application for Post-operative Gastric Patients: Surgery Diary

摘要

Gastric cancer is one of the most common gastrointestinal diseases around the world. In general, surgical resection is the only intervention. Surgical gastric cancer patients may suffer from malnutrition, which can be associated with gastrointestinal complications, surgical stress, and cancer cachexia. Malnourished patients typically have poor oncological outcomes and a decreased quality of life. To hasten the recovery of post-gastrectomy patients, we developed a smartphone application (app) that implements the functions of nutrition monitoring, medical information management, follow-up of drains, and wound care. This app is written using objective-C and the iOS (previously iPhone OS) 6.1 SDK (Software Development Kit), which provides iOS 5.1 and later compatibility. To integrate users' records, mySQL was used for data management and computing. Moreover, this app includes clinical rule support that informs patients of severe body weight loss or possible internal bleeding. Using this app, patients are able to monitor their general condition, wound, and nutritional status by themselves. Based on the preliminary analysis from users, this app is considered a useful tool that users can use it to reduce the impact on body weight loss significantly. More importantly, this app acquires a high degree of support with 93.3 percent from users.