Smartphone, Smart Surgeon, what about a ‘Smart Logbook’?

Abstract

Background: Mobile phone applications (Apps) have become a vital assistant to medical personnel in today’s technologically advanced era. The utility of Apps with case logbook capabilities has not yet been explored.

Objectives: To assess and evaluate all currently available surgical and procedural case logbook Apps.

Methods: A comprehensive search was conducted in April 2015 on the Android Play Store, iTunes (Apple App Store, iOS), and BlackBerry World for surgical and/or procedural logbooks. The search terms‘surgical logbook’, ‘logbook’, ‘procedure logbook’ and ‘surgical log’ were used. Apps which could not be utilized as a surgical/procedural logbook were excluded. Each App was individually assessed and rated using preset criteria, by the unit consultant, registrars, and medical officer.

Results: In total, 2 740 Apps were assessed. After applying our exclusion criteria, only 16 Apps were relevant, and 11 suitable for critical review. Data sizes ranged from 510Kb to 12.2Mb. Costing of the Apps ranged from ZAR 0.00 to ZAR 105.32. The overall study scores revealed the following top five rated Apps: Surgical Logbook by Surgilog; Surgeon Logbook Pro; Surgery Notebook, Surgical Logbook, and Universal Logbook.

Conclusion: The current mobile Apps available are efficient in replacing traditional case logbooks. The use of the ‘Smart Logbook’ may become common practice in the life of the modern-day surgeon.