St. Louis Children's Hospital now offers families of surgical patients access to a new HIPPA-compliant secure texting service that allows clinicians to update families in real-time from inside the operating room.
The children's hospital is one of the first healthcare facilities in the St. Louis area to offer the app known as Electronic Access to Surgical Events. EASE works in the same manner as the text messaging services people use each day. With the app, families can receive texts, photos and videos sent by surgical staff. Short updates are sent every 30 minutes.
"Until now, the OR was somewhat of a black box to patient families," said Pirooz Eghtesady, MD, cardiothoracic surgeon-in-chief, The Heart Center at St. Louis Children's Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine. "Anything we can do to lessen the anxiety of parents, to reassure them, is a step in the right direction."
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