The steady increase in the incidence of geriatric hip fracture places an increasing burden on health care service in Hong Kong. Post fracture limitations are prominent and restrain many of the elderly from returning to community, rehabilitation is therefore important for reducing their long-term disability.
By integrating the results from pilot application of video guided training and tele-physiotherapy program in different phases of rehabilitation, a Mobile Application (app) is developed aiming to improve hip fracture patients’ and their carers’ experience throughout the healthcare journey and empower them to manage their own health. A steering group comprised of physiotherapists, informatics and university research expert is formed to co-design the app, compose education content and formulate the promulgation and evaluation strategies. Meetings are also held with all involved clinicians to refine the app before implementation.
This app provides features for hip fracture rehabilitation including "Understanding Hip Fracture", "Hip Fracture Care", "Training" and "Companion". Patients and their carers can obtain hip fracture care related information through the app anywhere, anytime, instead of coming to the clinics in person or reading the information on pamphlets. Physiotherapists can use the app to set training program for discharged patients with “Push Reminder” function and training record can be saved in “Progress Summary”, which facilitates them and carers to get a grip on the patients’ rehabilitation progress.
Besides monitoring the download rate, a cohort study will be conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the app from different perspectives, including the users’ acceptance and satisfaction, patients’ program compliance and functional recovery. The process and findings learnt from this project may also provide additional information for the development of the corporate “Rehab” app, which is going to be launched in late 2019.
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