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Telemedicine and eHealth Applications for Injuries and Disorders of the Locomotor System

A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Global Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 August 2022) | Viewed by 6000

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
1. Polish Telemedicine and eHealth Society, Targowa 39A-5, PL-03728 Warsaw, Poland
2. Center of Excellence "TeleOrto" for Telediagnostics and Treatment of Disorders and Injuries of the Locomotor System, Department of Medical Informatics and Telemedicine, Medical University of Warsaw, PL-00581 Warsaw, Poland
Interests: orthopaedic surgery; spine surgery; telemedicine; eHealth; telerehabilitation; telediagnostics; patient-oriented outcomes; PROMIS® (Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System); quantitative methods; joint preservation; osteoarthritis; osteoporosis; minimally invasive techniques
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor
Department of Interventional Radiology, Military Institute of Medicine, Szaserów 128, 04-141 Warsaw, Poland
Interests: musculoskeletal radiology; vascular and interventional radiology; image-guided therapy; quantitative methods; telemedicine; eHealth; teleradiology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Orthopedic and trauma services have been disrupted in most countries due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and both outpatients and inpatients have been affected. Telemedicine and eHealth applications are recommended as available and possible solutions. Both telemedicine (TM) and eHealth (eH) are undergoing extensive development and gaining more and more acceptance in various clinical specialties, including orthopedics and traumatology, around the world. The digitization of medicine and the rapid growth of mobile and home devices have affected the recognition of such technologies and the growing interest of both medical professionals and patients. With challenging circumstances restricting travel possibilities, it is important to gain a full understanding of telemedicine solutions and remote health surveillance applications for their practical use. Such solutions are being used in various aspects of diseases and injuries of the musculoskeletal system. Teleconsultations using multiple types of videoconferences are the most common. Telemedicine and eHealth applications have also been successfully demonstrated in the diagnosis and treatment of injuries and disorders of the locomotor system.

Orthopedic patient recovery can be affected by the effectiveness of medical imaging diagnostics, orthopedic surgery, physiotherapy, orthotics, prosthetics, etc. TM and eH applications are applicable for all these clinical practices. Using TM and eH applications may increase the ability to deliver specialized orthopedic care and improve patient satisfaction, particularly when the regular healthcare system is permanently or temporarily limited. With the COVID-19 pandemic, recommendations for using TM and eH applications are necessary for the reduction of unnecessary person-to-person contact in orthopedics and traumatology. Therefore, the primary purpose of this Special Issue is to present current evidence and recommendations for TM and eH use in orthopedics and traumatology.

Please join us by contributing to this Special Issue of the IJERPH on telemedicine and eHealth applications that are either in development or currently used worldwide in clinical practice for injuries and disorders of the locomotor system. Papers on any aspect of TM and eH applications developed and used for injuries and disorders of the locomotor system are welcomed. Articles should highlight best practices, innovative services, productive incentives, and barriers to deployment.

Dr. Wojciech Glinkowski
Dr. Jerzy Narloch
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • telemedicine
  • eHealth
  • telehealth
  • applications
  • orthopedics
  • traumatology
  • locomotor system
  • innovation
  • clinical practice

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 975 KiB  
Article
Proposal of a New Rating Concept for Digital Health Applications in Orthopedics and Traumatology
by Julian Scherer, Yasmin Youssef, Florian Dittrich, Urs-Vito Albrecht, Serafeim Tsitsilonis, Jochen Jung, Dominik Pförringer, Stefan Landgraeber, Sascha Beck and David A. Back
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(22), 14952; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192214952 - 13 Nov 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2061
Abstract
Background: Health-related mobile applications (apps) are rapidly increasing in number. There is an urgent need for assessment tools and algorithms that allow the usability and content criteria of these applications to be objectively assessed. The aim of this work was to establish and [...] Read more.
Background: Health-related mobile applications (apps) are rapidly increasing in number. There is an urgent need for assessment tools and algorithms that allow the usability and content criteria of these applications to be objectively assessed. The aim of this work was to establish and validate a concept for orthopedic societies to rate health apps to set a quality standard for their safe use. Methods: An objective rating concept was created, consisting of nine quality criteria. A self-declaration sheet for app manufacturers was designed. Manufacturers completed the self-declaration, and the app was examined by independent internal reviewers. The pilot validation and analysis were performed on two independent health applications. An algorithm for orthopedic societies was created based on the experiences in this study flow. Results: “Sprunggelenks-App“ was approved by the reviewers with 45 (98%) fulfilled criteria and one (2%) unfulfilled criterion. “Therapie-App” was approved, with 28 (61%) met criteria, 6 (13%) unfulfilled criteria and 12 (26%) criteria that could not be assessed. The self-declaration completed by the app manufacturer is recommended, followed by a legal and technical rating performed by an external institution. When rated positive, the societies’ internal review using independent raters can be performed. In case of a positive rating, a visual certification can be granted to the manufacturer for a certain time frame. Conclusion: An objective rating algorithm is proposed for the assessment of digital health applications. This can help societies to improve the quality assessment, quality assurance and patient safety of those apps. The proposed concept must be further validated for inter-rater consistency and reliability. Full article
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15 pages, 398 KiB  
Article
Orthopedic Telemedicine Outpatient Practice Diagnoses Set during the First COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown—Individual Observation
by Wojciech Michał Glinkowski
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(9), 5418; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19095418 - 29 Apr 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2631
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a substantial intensification of the telemedicine transformation process in orthopedics since 2020. In the light of the legal regulations introduced in Poland, from the beginning of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, physicians, including orthopedic surgeons, have had the opportunity to [...] Read more.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a substantial intensification of the telemedicine transformation process in orthopedics since 2020. In the light of the legal regulations introduced in Poland, from the beginning of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, physicians, including orthopedic surgeons, have had the opportunity to conduct specialist teleconsultations. Teleconsultations increase epidemiological safety and significantly reduce the exposure of patients and medical staff to direct transmission of the viral vector and the spread of infections. The study aimed to describe diagnoses and clinical aspects of consecutive orthopedic teleconsultations (TC) during the pandemic lockdown. The diagnoses were set according to the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10). Hybrid teleconsultations used smartphones and obligatory Electronic Health Record (EHR) with supplemental voice, SMS, MMS, Medical images, documents, and video conferencing if necessary. One hundred ninety-eight consecutive orthopedic teleconsultations were served for 615 women and 683 men (mean age 41.82 years ± 11.47 years). The most frequently diagnosed diseases were non-acute orthopedic disorders “M” (65.3%) and injuries “S” (26.3%). Back pain (M54) was the most frequent diagnosis (25.5%). Although virtual orthopedic consultation cannot replace an entire personal visit to a specialist orthopedic surgeon, in many cases, teleconsultation enables medical staff to continue to participate in providing medical services at a sufficiently high medical level to ensure patient and physician. The unified approach to TC diagnoses using ICD-10 or ICD-11 may improve further research on telemedicine-related orthopedics repeatability. Future research directions should address orthopedic teleconsultations’ practical aspects and highlight legal, organizational, and technological issues with their implementations. Full article
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