Doc Invents Post-Surgery App

Michael Dunbar, M.D., a surgeon at the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital and a professor in biomedical engineering at Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, Canada, was finding it hard to keep up with the long line of patients needing hip and knee replacements and post surgery check-ups. So he invented a smartphone app.

Dunbar’s app uses the accelerometer in smartphones to analyze the gait of a patient. “It can measure the centre of mass displacement very accurately” said Dunbar, “The accelerometers are pretty simple and pretty powerful.”

Here is how Dunbar envisions it working. Patients would get a text message or phone call from the doctor telling them that it is almost time for a checkup and to strap their phone on and go for a walk within the next week or so.

“It’s going to be hard for this not to be more accurate than what we’re doing already, ” said Dunbar. “What we are using now is just a two-dimensional X-ray, which is very blunt, and is just a picture of the patient lying down, and has nothing to do with the patients’ walking around and how they get around in space.”

The app works by strapping the phone on to the patient’s back or hip and having him walk around in his own neighborhood. The results would be shared with the doctor for analysis and a follow-up phone call or message sent to the patient about how he is healing.

“Turns out the majority of people are fine, ” said Dunbar about the patients he sees currently for post-surgery appointments. He sees his app as a time saving and time effective option. “Because ultimately, ” he says, “it is going to save a lot of money.”