SSMART (Stanford Surgical Mobile Assessing Risk Tracker) is a smartphone-based health app for a research study by the VA Palo Alto and Stanford University. SSMART acts as a platform to track surgical patients across a highly structured episode of care, their relationship between opioid use and pain, and self-reporting health-related symptoms. This app integrates with HealthKit, ResearchKit and CareKit, as well as the Apple Health App to collect data related to your medical condition, activity and general health.
Since SSMART is a research study based health app, the first step is for users to go through a consent process to participate in the research study; users may also withdraw from the study at any time as they please. Once user consent is given, SSMART will use the mobile health capabilities of a smartphone to access daily activity measures of patients with differing degrees of surgical procedures, once . Users that participate in the study will be asked to complete short assessments on their biopsychosocial behavioral patterns, medication and prescription details, and metrics related to pain, sleep, quality of life, daily functioning. These surveys will be staged pre- and post-surgery in different frequency patterns, as well as are presented to the user optionally. By using CareKit, users are given an easy way to track their health over time as well. Altogether, SSMART is a platform that allow physicians to better help their patients, but it is important to note SSMART does not give health advice. If health advice is needed, it is advised to visit VA Palo Alto Healthcare’s site: paloalto.va.gov.
Survey responses are saved in a secure and HIPAA compliant database. Medical professionals from Stanford Medicine and the VA Palo Alto that have approval for this study through the IRB will be the only ones to receive access to this data .All the information the patient provides will be used by the physician to monitor the patient’s overall health through the backend analytic web app.