Brigham & Women's Hospital
Enhancing patient recovery after surgery with BWH
Administering the ERAS protocol through a smartphone app.
Mobile Application Development
Technology Architecture
Custom Database Development
Python
MySQL
The Objective
ERAS, or Enhanced Recovery After Surgery, is a transformative surgical approach that is rapidly gaining traction throughout the medical community for its impressive impact on surgical outcomes.
In the ERAS protocol patients receive specific plans for diet and exercise changes in the days leading up to, of, and after surgery. The problem that Dr. Kevin Elias and his team at the OB/GYN surgery department at Brigham and Women’s Hospital recognized was that adherence to the protocol depended on the patient following instructions that were being emailed or printed for the patient. Hospital staff were unable to monitor patient adherence and encourage the behavior change in the patient that was needed to enhance their recovery.
Dr. Elias approached ADK with a vision - to create a first-of-its-kind mobile application and clinician dashboard that would allow the OB/GYN department to increase patient adherence to ERAS protocols. This digital-pathway would make it easier for patients to follow the specific requirements of the ERAS program in the days leading up to, on the day, and after their surgery. The app would serve as an intuitive content-based data collection tool in areas such as diet, activity, and general wellness. In addition to preoperative and postoperative evaluation, the platform would also provide important information such as activity and dietary reminders and instructional activity videos in compliance with the ERAS program.
They knew the clinical goal that they were trying to solve, but they needed a technology solution partner who could invent the product interface, user experience, and technology.
The Solution
The core challenge was how to deliver a great patient experience in the app while also ensuring strong compliance to the demands of the ERAS protocol. To solve this, ADK’s strategy team and UX/UI designers worked closely alongside the clinical experts at BWH in a focused discovery phase. Working with a clinical team led by Dr. Kevin Elias, we architected a patient-friendly mobile application interface that delivers the necessary information and captures the key data. We also designed and architected a custom dashboard for BWH leveraging the BWH Mobile Research Platform architecture what we co-invented with the BWH iHub. This dashboard allows clinicians easy access to essential app analytics and protocol administration tools. Once the vision was formalized into designs and specifications, ADK’s Boston-based expert React Native development team built the patient-friendly mobile application to the highest code and user experience standards. Our clinician-facing dashboard is compatible with EPIC software in order to aggregate and calculate the metrics captured from patients in the mobile application. Our integration team also worked with BWH clinicians and EPIC developers to implement the ERAS onboarding process within EPIC.
The BWH team understood the complexity of the problem that they were trying to solve and the unique capabilities that were needed to accomplish their vision. ADK’s depth of experience in mobile health app design and EPIC software combined with our proprietary mobile data collection solution (BWH Mobile Research Platform) made us the perfect project partner. The app is generating so much excitement for this application that the other BWH surgical departments are already clamoring for access and a hospital-wide roll-out is in the works.