Background: Medical care for the Chinese population has been focused on first-line treatment, but with little follow-up on treated patients. As an important part of clinical work, follow-up evaluations are of great significance for the long-term survival of patients and for clinical and scientific research. However, the overall follow-up rate of discharged patients after surgery has been low for many years because of the limitations of certain follow-up methods and the presence of objective, practical problems.
Objective: This study aimed to construct a new two-way interactive telemedicine follow-up platform to improve the collection of clinical data after cardiac surgery and provide reliable and high-quality follow-up services.
Methods: Computer and network technologies were employed in the context of "Internet +" to develop follow-up databases and software compatible with a mobile network. Postoperative follow-up quality data including the follow-up rate and important postoperative indices were used as standards to evaluate the new follow-up management model after cardiac surgery.
Results: This system has been officially operated for more than 5 years. A total of 5347 patients undergoing cardiac surgery have been enrolled, and the total follow-up rate was 90.22%. In addition, 6349 echocardiographic images, 4717 electrocardiographic images, and 3504 chest radiographic images have been uploaded during follow-up assessments. The international standardized ratio was 20,696 person-times.
Conclusions: This new management follow-up platform can be used to effectively collect clinical data, provide technical support for academic research, extend medical services, and provide more help to patients. It is of great significance for managing patients after cardiac surgery.
Keywords: cardiac surgery; follow-up; telemedicine.
©Zhihui Zhu, Haibo Zhang, Yuehuan Li, Xu Meng, Yuqing Jiao, Ying Qin, Yan Li, Jie Han, Kun Liu, Chongyang Liu. Originally published in JMIR Medical Informatics (http://medinform.jmir.org), 01.04.2019.