The mobile app allows nurses to send personalized text, as well as photos and video updates from the operating room to family members inside and outside the hospital.

Sitting in a waiting room while a loved one undergoes surgery can be a nerve wracking, even frightening, experience because of the unknown about what is happening in the operating room. To reduce the anxiety family and friends feel waiting during surgery, EASE Applications has developed a mobile app that allows nurses to send personalized text, as well as photos and video updates from the operating room to family members at the hospital and outside it.

Call it Snapchat for the operating room.

Developed by anesthesiologists, the EASE app is not disruptive to surgical procedures as personnel in the operating room not involved with the surgical procedure send the updates. All texts, photos, and videos disappear 60 seconds after being viewed and none of the information sent through the app is saved. The app prompts users in the operating room to send an update every 30 minutes.

“It’s natural for people waiting on a patient in surgery to fear the worst during the procedure because they typically don’t receive any information until the procedure is over,” says Dr. Hamish Munro, director of pediatric cardiac anesthesiology with the Heart Center at Arnold Palmer Children’s Hospital. “Sharing information with loved ones during surgery creates transparency and trust by opening the door to the operating room.”

Messages can be as personalized or as simple as the staff wants to make them.

The EASE solution is made up of two apps, one for the hospital and the other for family members and friends. Clinicians can download EASE MD to mobile devices issued by the hospital to staff and that can be locked to prevent unauthorized access. Downloading EASE MD to devices used by staff ensures familiarity with the workflows of the device, and that EASE MD is not downloaded to personal devices used by hospital staff, says EASE CEO Patrick de la Roza. Family and friends down EASE to their smartphone to receive updates.

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The cost of EASE MD is based on the number of beds in the facility, such as the intensive care unit. Prices can typically start around $15,000 for a small institution and go as high as six figures for large enterprise facilities, de la Roza says. Family and friends can download EASE for free. Both apps are available in the Apple and Android stores. 30 hospitals across the country are using the EASE app including Orlando Health, Texas Children’s Hospital and Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Patients having surgery at a facility using EASE MD are typically encouraged to download the app, register their device, set up their contact list and select the type of messages they want sent, such as text only or text and photo prior to entering the hospital. Upon registration at the hospital, the patient launches the EASE app and receives a QR code that is scanned by hospital staff using a device running EASE MD. Next, the patient’s ID wristband is scanned to securely sync the EASE MD app to the EASE app on the patient’s smartphone.

To begin sending messages, hospital staff scans the patient’s ID bracelet to be certain EASE MD connects to the right patient app. Next, the staffer types a personalized message, such as heading to the operating room, and includes a photo or video and hits the send button. Ready-made messages can also be sent. If a patient has selected text-only messages, EASE MD shuts off the devices’ camera. In addition to English, messages can be sent in eight other languages.

“Messages can be as personalized or as simple as the staff wants to make them,” says de la Roza. “Providing updates every 30 minutes, even if it is to say ‘everything is going ok,’ helps reduce anxiety for family and friends.”

Another benefit of EASE is that it frees family members from the waiting room, allowing them to receive updates if they are taking a break at the hospital cafeteria, for example. “The waiting room can be a pretty cold and sterile place to be tied to,” says Munro, a co-founder of EASE.

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After the surgery is completed, a satisfaction survey is sent to patients and individuals on the patient’s contact list. Survey data can be used to provide hospital administrative staff with feedback about the level of communication between staff and patients and their family members and their overall satisfaction levels.

“Some of the trends we have seen is that satisfaction scores rise when photos or video are added to text messages and that Press Ganey scores improve as use of EASE is expanded throughout the hospital,” Munro says.

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