Abstract
Background Evolution within spine surgery is driven by a surgeon’s desire for expertise and significant improvement in their patients’ quality of life. As surgeons move away from using subjective patient-reported outcome (PRO) surveys, there must be an alternative objective metric in its place. Modern iPhone (Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA) technology can be used to capture daily activity in a simple, non-user biased manner. These health data can be used to analyze objective functional status in conjunction with PRO surveys to measure surgical outcomes.Methods Patients who underwent an awake transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion (TLIF) between 2014 and 2018 at our institution were identified. Patients were consented and instructed to download the application “QS Access” (Quantified Self Labs, San Francisco, CA). Following data collection, we analyzed the demographic information of patients who were reached to gauge participation and feasibility of data exportation.ResultsA total of 177 patients who underwent an awake TLIF at our institution were contacted. Of those who answered, 41 (44.6%) agreed to participate and 51 (55.4%) declined to participate. When comparing those who either participated or declined, there were no significant differences in age (p=0.145), sex (p=0.589), or ethnicity (p=0.686).Conclusion Our pilot study examined the patient participation in the novel usage of Apple "Health" data, queried from "QS Access" (Quantified Self Labs), to objectively measure relative patient functional status surrounding spinal fusion. We demonstrated that a smartphone-based application was mostly well received by our patient cohort and has the potential to be used as an objective operative metric moving forward.
Highlights
Advancing surgical techniques and innovative devices have revolutionized spine surgery within the past decade [1]
This has been accomplished by patientreported outcome (PRO) surveys, including the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), Visual Analog Scale (VAS) back and leg pain, and the Short Form (SF) 36 Health Survey amongst others [7]
Our pilot study examined the patient participation in the novel usage of Apple “Health" data, queried from “QS Access” (Quantified Self Labs) to objectively measure relative patient functional status surrounding lumbar spine surgery
Summary
Advancing surgical techniques and innovative devices have revolutionized spine surgery within the past decade [1] Many novel technologies, such as robotic spine surgery, microendoscopy-assisted procedures, and machine learning/artificial intelligence for procedural analysis, have allowed surgeons to evolve towards more minimally invasive approaches [2,3]. These advancements permit smaller incisions, less blood loss, and, a quicker return to daily activities [4,5]. Modern iPhone (Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA) technology can be used to capture daily activity in a simple, non-user biased manner These health data can be used to analyze objective functional status in conjunction with PRO surveys to measure surgical outcomes
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