In-person post-operative follow-up visits are a laborious process for both the patient and the healthcare team. In particular given the current COVID-19 pandemic in-person follow-up results in additional exposure risk for both the patient and the health care team. 

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The SpineHealthie mobile health application is designed to replace post-operative in-person follow-ups and streamline communication between patients and spine surgeons. The application is specifically designed to work in concert with full-endoscopic spine surgery.  Full-endoscopic spine surgery is an ultra-minimally invasive type of spine surgery, performed under constant fluid irrigation associated with fewer complications and favorable outcomes compared to traditional spine surgery. Dr. Hofstetter is worldwide renown expert for his type of surgery and The application will allow patients to voice their health concerns, ask questions and input post-operative recovery updates with healthcare providers through follow-up surveys and the chat feature. We hypothesize that close follow-up performed at the leisure of the patient leads to higher levels of patient satisfaction and improves long-term patient post-operative outcomes. 

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As the study progresses, the application will go through several iterations. Surveys will be disseminated to users intermittently during the period of the study to gauge and determine factors that impact users’ satisfactions with the application. Feedback will be considered when upgrading the application with features such as adding an alert notification to inform participants to complete their follow-up forms.   

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