Prospective Randomized Study on the Use of Robot-Assisted Postoperative Visits.

Abstract

Introduction: Robot-assisted visits, as part of telemedicine, can offer doctors the opportunity to take care of patients. Due to theCOVID-19 pandemic, there has been an increase in telemedicine. The use of teleconsultations, for example, has found its way into the German health care system. However, the practicability and the benefit of robot-assisted postoperative visits have not been systematically investigated in any study worldwide. Methods: Patients were enrolled in a prospective randomized study comparing the standard postoperative visit with the doctor on call and the digital visit through the Double robot between December 2019 and April 2022. All patients and doctors completed a survey after the visit. The primary outcome was patient satisfaction. Secondary outcomes included patients' pain, hospitalization time, and patients' opinions about the usefulness of the robot. Likert scales of arithmetic mean, standard deviation, and subgroup analyses with the Mann-Whitney U test and the Fisher's exact test were used to compare outcomes. Results: We enrolled a total of 106 patients: 54 (50.9%) of them underwent the robot visit and 52 (49.1%) underwent the conventional visit. Baseline demographic and clinical characteristics were similar between groups. Our primary outcome was the same in both arms. Similar results were obtained for the secondary endpoints. Conclusion: Robot-televisits were comparable with standard visits including satisfaction, usefulness, and time of hospitalization. Digitalization in medicine is an irreversible process, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. We hope that our study will provide concrete help to encourage the allocation of funds for telemedicine in Germany's health care system.