Grand River Hospital has recently launched a surgical remote monitoring platform to support patients that are having hip or knee replacements: SeamlessMD. 

"SeamlessMD is a very user-friendly platform that helps to enhance communication between our patients and care team,” explains Dr. Matthew Snider, an orthopedic surgeon at Grand River Hospital. "In the data available to us through the dashboards, we can efficiently track patient recovery at home and address any post-surgical complications.”

Grand River Hospital is the first hospital in Southeastern Ontario to implement SeamlessMD as part of Ontario Health’s recent remote patient monitoring initiative, which will expand access to care from home and minimize in-person surgery visits in response to the pandemic.

With SeamlessMD, patients undergoing hip or knee surgery at Grand River Hospital use their own devices (e.g. smartphone, tablet and/ or computer) to receive support before their procedure and throughout their recovery in the form of personalized education, progresstracking, and post-op symptom monitoring. After being discharged from the hospital, patients can remotely connect with their care team through the SeamlessMD platform to share photos of their wounds and self-report their progress by entering data such as pain scores, symptoms and updates on their range of motion. This allows their team to make personalized care recommendations and enables faster intervention from the surgical care team if necessary.

The Hospital has been using SeamlessMD to help reduce visits to the emergency department, readmissions and the length of patients’ hospital stays, especially during the pandemic. To date, more than 600 patients have enrolled in the program, and it has helped prevent two infections from becoming serious complications during the post-op period. Additionally, 89% of patients at Grand River Hospital that have used SeamlessMD reported that the platform made them feel more confident during recovery, with one patient sharing, “I [find] it comforting to know that there is a caring team out there that is following our recovery progress. I’m sure it has saved on many calls to a doctor’s office or trips to the emergency department.”

"In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, SeamlessMD provides an effective alternative to in-person care that helps us protect employee health and patient safety,” says Lisa Buttazzoni, Program Director of Critical Care and Surgical Services at Grand River Hospital."The implementation of this technology supports our mission to continuously deliver innovative care by helping us stay connected with our patients, regardless of where they live.” 

"SeamlessMD is honoured to support Grand River Hospital as part of Ontario Health’s initiative to expand remote monitoring efforts across Ontario,” shares Dr. Joshua Liu, CEO at SeamlessMD. "We are dedicated to the delivery of safe and effective virtual care to protect the health and well-being of our communities and are grateful for the ongoing support provided by Ontario Health.” 

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Learning & Innovation is a pillar of the work we do at Grand River Hospital. Read the full ACTION magazine to learn all about our latest innovations: https://grhf.ca/pages/action-issue-7