Intelligent Customer-driven Solution for Children and Their Parents Undergoing Day Surgery

University of Oulu

Status: Completed

Conditions: Herniorrhaphies; Surgery; Parents; Children; Tonsillitis

Treatments: Device: IcorySolution

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04277299

HUS180/2020

Details and patient eligibility

About

This research aims to evaluate the effectiveness of web-based mobile intervention (Icory -Solution) developed to pediatric patients and their parents in the pathway of outpatient surgery treatment in pre-intra- and postoperative setting: (1) Examine the effectiveness of the intervention on children's preoperative anxiety and fear, and postoperative pain (2) examine the effectiveness of the intervention on parental anxiety and satisfaction in children´s care path and (3) examine the experiences of the gamification in children in the intervention group.

Full description

Children and their families are entitled to know what is going to happen to them before undergoing day surgery and information must be based on the child's age and understanding. It is important to help children to cope with any upcoming surgery because the more anxious and fear they are, the more pain they experience after the day surgery. Digital gaming solutions could help families and children to be better oriented to the coming treatment. Icory -solution is a digital pathway for children and family and it contains a virtual tour to hospital and distraction games for children. The information on the application is aligned with the patient's individual needs based on the type of surgery and requirements.

Enrollment: 40 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 7 to 12 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Age between 7-12 years old
• Is scheduled for an elective day surgery
• Is able to speak, and read in Finnish
• Is accompanied by their parents (either mother or father or both) during the perioperative period
• Has access to smart phone/tablet (own or rent from the project)

Exclusion criteria

• Cognitive and learning disabilities identified from the medical record
• A chronic illness and/or pain that required special medical care

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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40 participants in 2 patient groups

Intervention group

Experimental group

Description:

The participants in the intervention group will receive the routine care plus the ICory-Solution which is the surgical pathway currently practiced in the study hospital. The ICory-Solution has two components: (1) the Buddy Healthcare mobile app (BuddyCare) that provides a comprehensive day-by-day perioperative guide for parents regarding their child's surgery with an interface for health care professionals to monitor parents' and their children's needs as well as communicate with them. (2) The Triumf Health mobile game app that provides emotional support and distraction to children.

Treatment:

Device: IcorySolution

Control group

No Intervention group

Description:

Children in the control group will receive routine care provided by the hospital which consists of normal doctor consultant, preoperative preparation, and postoperative care. Parents in this group will receive BuddyCare mobile app which is supposed to be as a normal routine in this hospital.