JMIR Perioperative Medicine

The mainstay of colorectal cancer care is surgical resection, which carries a significant risk of complications. Efforts to improve outcomes have recently focused on intensive multimodal prehabilitation programs to better prepare patients for surgery, which make the perioperative process even more complex and demanding for patients. Digital applications (eCoaches) seem promising tools to guide patients during their care journey. We developed a comprehensive eCoach to support, guide, and monitor patients undergoing elective colorectal surgery through the perioperative phase of the care pathway.

Precise functional capacity assessment is a critical component for preoperative risk stratification. Brief submaximal cardiopulmonary exercise testing (smCPET) has shown diagnostic utility in various cardiopulmonary conditions.

Surgical recovery after hospital discharge often presents challenges for patients and caregivers. Postoperative complications and poorly managed pain at home can lead to unexpected visits to the emergency department (ED) and readmission to the hospital. Digital home monitoring (DHM) may improve postoperative care compared to standard methods.

Frailty is associated with postoperative morbidity and mortality. Preoperative screening and management of persons with frailty improves postoperative outcomes. The Clinical Risk Analysis Index (RAI-C) is a validated provider-based screening tool for assessing frailty in presurgical populations. Patient self-screening for frailty may provide an alternative to provider-based screening if resources are limited; however, the agreement between these 2 methods has not been previously explored.

Day surgery is being increasingly implemented across Europe, driven in part by capacity problems. Patients recovering at home could benefit from tools tailored to their new care setting to effectively manage their convalescence. The mHealth application ikHerstel is one such tool, but although it administers its functions in the home, its implementation hinges on health care professionals within the hospital.

Inhalational anesthetic agents are a major source of potent greenhouse gases in the medical sector, and reducing their emissions is a readily addressable goal. Nitrous oxide (N₂O) has a long environmental half-life relative to carbon dioxide combined with a low clinical potency, leading to relatively large amounts of N₂O being stored in cryogenic tanks and H cylinders for use, increasing the chance of pollution through leaks. Building on previous findings, Stanford Health Care’s (SHC’s) N₂O emissions were analyzed at 2 campuses and targeted for waste reduction as a precursor to system-wide reductions.

Postoperative delirium (POD) is a common complication after major surgery and is associated with poor outcomes in older adults. Early identification of patients at high risk of POD can enable targeted prevention efforts. However, existing POD prediction models require inpatient data collected during the hospital stay, which delays predictions and limits scalability.

Qualitative experience data can inform health care providers how to best support families during pediatric postoperative recovery. Patient experience data can also provide actionable information to guide health care quality improvement; positive feedback can confirm the efficacy of current practices and systems, while negative comments can identify areas for improvement.

In Canada, the health care system has been estimated to generate 33 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually. Health care systems, specifically operating rooms (ORs), are significant contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, using 3 to 6 times more energy than the hospital’s average unit.

At present, parents lack objective methods to evaluate their child’s postoperative recovery following discharge from the hospital. As a result, clinicians are dependent upon a parent’s subjective assessment of the child’s health status and the child’s ability to communicate their symptoms. This subjective nature of home monitoring contributes to unnecessary emergency department (ED) use as well as delays in treatment. However, the integration of data remotely collected using a consumer wearable device has the potential to provide clinicians with objective metrics for postoperative patients to facilitate informed longitudinal, remote assessment.

The journey of receiving blood as a patient with transfusion-dependent beta thalassemia has profoundly shaped my understanding of the life-saving power of blood donation. This personal experience underscores the critical importance of blood donors, not just for individual recipients but for the broader community, enhancing public health, productivity, and well-being. There are several challenges to securing a blood donor pool in current health care climate. Solutions that focus on the engagement of donors, clinicians, and patients are key to improving the donor pool and utilizing the blood supply in a judicious manner.

Biofeedback-based virtual reality (VR-BF) is a novel, nonpharmacologic method for teaching patients how to control their breathing, which in turn increases heart rate variability (HRV) and may reduce pain. Unlike traditional forms of biofeedback, VR-BF is delivered through a gamified virtual reality environment, increasing the accessibility of biofeedback. This is the first study to systematically integrate VR-BF use in the pediatric perioperative setting, with the ultimate goal of evaluating the efficacy of VR-BF to reduce pain, anxiety, and opioid consumption once feasibility and acceptability have been established.