JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background The number of elective outpatient surgeries in Canada has increased markedly in the last 10 years. Postoperative adverse events could be reduced integrating modern and optimal technologies to ensure quality and safety of postoperative care. Thereby, the department of Anesthesiology at the University of Montreal Medical Center in collaboration with Leomed®, have developed a telehealth solution to offer a more efficient perioperative support and follow-up for patients undergoing outpatient surgeries. The primary aim is to conduct a medico-economic evaluation of the deployment of this telehealth innovation. Methods This study is a single-center, single-blinded, two-groups, randomized controlled trial. 1000 patients over 18 years of age with written, oral, and spoken comprehension of French or English and Internet access will be assigned to receive either perioperative support with a patient-tailored postoperative follow-up via the LeoMed® telecare platform for one month, or standard care. Cost-effectiveness, cost-utility and cost-benefit analyses will be performed by a blind, independent research team. All data will be analyzed according to the intention-to-treat principle. We estimated that a sample size of 500 subjects in each group would give the study at least 90% power to detect a 21% reduction in postoperative complications. Interpretation This trial will be useful to determine the economic impact of a telecare platform specifically developed for outpatients’ perioperative pathways. Ethics The study is registered at Clinicaltrials.gov and is approved by the CHUM’s Ethics Board. No employee of LeoMed® was involved in the study conception and will be involved in data collection or analysis.