Assessing Surgical Site Infection Surveillance Technologies: The ASSIST Project
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 decision making and public health surveillance for surgical site infection.
To evaluate current uses of patient-generated health data (PGHD) and mobile devices in SSI surveillance, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, through the SHEPheRD program, supported a 2-year project (9/29/2017 - 9/28/2019) led by principal investigators at the University of Washington and the Medical University of South Carolina. Over the last two years, the Assessing Surgical Site Infection Surveillance Technologies (ASSIST) project has worked to conduct a Health Technology Assessment (HTA) on the topic. Several members of the Surgical Infection Society, including Traci Hedrick, SIS Past Presidents Rob Sawyer and Patch Dellinger, contributed substantially to this effort led by SIS Recorder Heather Evans.
This work culminated in an HTA report which outlines best practices, identifies gaps in current knowledge, and provides 10 recommendations for the further advancement of clinical and public health uses of mHealth-facilitated PGHD in SSI clinical decision making and surveillance. We invite you to read the full HTA report here.
The report may be cited as follows:
Evans H, Lober W, Lee J, Lawrence S, Lavallee D. Assessing Surgical Site Infection Surveillance Technologies (ASSIST): Health Technology Assessment Report. University of Washington; 2019:1-101. https://www.cirg.washington.edu/assistHTAreport
The findings of the ASSIST project and HTA are expanded upon in an upcoming special issue of our society’s journal Surgical Infections. This special issue features a collection of twelve manuscripts that provide an in-depth examination of key topics on the use of mHealth and PGHD in SSI surveillance and clinical practice. Topics include implementation and workflow considerations for integration of PGHD, patient engagement and co-design of PGHD programs, applying Artificial Intelligence methods to wound photography for SSI surveillance, and examining how data from PGHD and wound photography may impact the definition of SSI.