{"id":58265,"date":"2018-05-23T11:06:03","date_gmt":"2018-05-23T15:06:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/busm\/?p=58265"},"modified":"2018-05-25T13:11:29","modified_gmt":"2018-05-25T17:11:29","slug":"medical-students-idea-for-mobile-app-receives-national-recognition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/2018\/05\/23\/medical-students-idea-for-mobile-app-receives-national-recognition\/","title":{"rendered":"Medical Students\u2019 Idea for Mobile App Receives National Recognition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Drs.<strong> <\/strong>Andrew Chu and Samir Haroon\u2019s idea for a smartphone app to support Boston Medical Center\u2019s (BMC) postoperative pulmonary care protocol has received national recognition.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_58266\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-58266\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/camed\/files\/2018\/05\/COM-Chu-Haroon-Lehman-credit-e1527087106486.jpg\" alt=\"Chu and Haroon, in white coats, hold the smartphone and tablet versions respectively of the iCOUGH Recovery app\" class=\"size-full wp-image-58266\" width=\"300\" height=\"348\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-58266\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Andrew Chu and Samir Haroon hold the smartphone and tablet versions respectively of the iCOUGH Recovery app. Photo credit Betsy Lehman Center<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Drs. Chu (BUSM\u201918) and Haroon (BUSM\u201917) conceived, designed and implemented this program while still in medical school.<\/p>\n<p>Named the ICOUGH Recovery app, the tool guides patients through the steps of the &#8220;ICOUGH&#8221; pulmonary care protocol, which focuses on (I)ncentive spirometry, (C)oughing and deep breathing, (O)ral hygiene, (U)nderstanding the value of these actions, (G)etting out of bed at least three times daily, and (H)ead-of-bed elevation.<\/p>\n<p>The app earned BMC the honor of receiving the ECRI Institute 2018 Health Device Achievement Award. Now in its 12<sup>th<\/sup> year, the award recognizes innovative and effective initiatives undertaken by ECRI member institutions to improve patient safety, reduce costs, or otherwise facilitate better strategic management of health technology.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis clever tool is an example of how innovative\u00a0young minds can re-shape approaches to old challenges,\u201d said Dr. David McAneny, vice chair of the department of surgery and principal investigator of the original ICOUGH study. \u201cWhen Andrew and Samir proposed the application, we could not have imagined how well patients and staff would receive the app or how effective it might be. The results were especially impressive at BMC, where one-quarter of patients do not speak English and racial and ethnic minorities constitute 70 percent of all patients.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The app sends notifications to the patients&#8217; phones reminding them to perform certain activities, and incorporates social-support features to promote adherence to the protocol. For example, patients can earn gold stars for getting out of bed to walk around the care area,\u00a0track how long they have been using their incentive spirometer, and compare their performance to that of other patients. A\u00a0friend or family member can be designated as a \u201cCare Coach&#8221;\u00a0and\u00a0receive\u00a0updates via the app to\u00a0help the patient stay accountable.<\/p>\n<p>Patients who tried the app during its trial phase said it empowered them to take greater control of their recovery. Clinicians like that the tool helps improve patient compliance without overburdening hospital staff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Drs. Chu (BUSM\u201918) and Harron (BUSM\u201917) conceived, designed and implemented this program while still in medical school.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":903,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[89,91],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58265"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/903"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58265"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58462,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58265\/revisions\/58462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}