CERTAIN Patient Advisory Network

ASSIST Project Evaluating the Use of Mobile Devices Post-Surgery Seeks Input

Assessing Surgical Site Infection Surveillance Technology (ASSIST) is a project funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to study how patients and their care teams use patient-generated health data and mobile devices to monitor surgical site infection after surgery. The project team has developed a Health Technology Assessment (HTA) report to present what they have found. The HTA outlines best practice recommendations and gaps in current knowledge on the use of mobile devices and patient-generated health data in several areas, including practice, research, and public health surveillance to address CDC’s clinical and public health priorities.

The ASSIST team invites public comment on the HTA by February 28, 2019.

Review and Comment on the ASSIST HTA Report

About ASSIST

The increasing use of mobile devices by patients to send images and text messages to surgeons and care teams after surgery presents new opportunities for both clinical and public health practice. Used wisely, this rapidly evolving application of information technology can produce enormously important benefits for individual patients, ambulatory surgical centers and hospitals, practitioners, and infection surveillance and prevention of surgical site infection (SSI).

For that reason, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, through the SHEPheRD program, is supporting a 2-year project led by principal investigators at the University of Washington (UW). The primary goal is well summarized in the project’s name: Assessing Surgical Site Infection Surveillance Technologies (ASSIST).