Evidence mapPaperPMID 41245918Full record

ReviewCureus2025

Remote Follow-Up Using Smartphone Apps, Telemedicine, and Wearable Activity Sensors After Joint Replacement: A Narrative Review.

Ali Soffar, Ahmed Elkohail, Abdelrahman Sayed, Mohamed Elbanna, Kerementi Othieno-P'Otonya, Mohammad Monir, Hassan A Kassem, Ahmed E Abdellatif

Abstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Cureus, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Review
  2. Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors.

Ali SoffarTrauma and Orthopaedics, Princess Royal University Hospital and Orpington Hospital, King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London, GBR.
Ahmed ElkohailTrauma and Orthopaedics, Princess Royal University Hospital, King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London, GBR.
Abdelrahman SayedTrauma and Orthopaedics, Cardiff University Hospital, Cardiff, GBR.
Mohamed ElbannaTrauma and Orthopaedics, Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust, London, GBR.
Kerementi Othieno-P'OtonyaTrauma and Orthopaedics, King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London, GBR.
Mohammad MonirTrauma and Orthopaedics, General Organization for Teaching Hospitals and Institutes, Cairo, EGY.
Hassan A KassemCritical Care Medicine, King's College London, London, GBR.
Ahmed E AbdellatifTrauma and Orthopedics, Andalusia Hospital, Jeddah, SAU.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Digital health tools such as smartphone applications, telemedicine platforms, wearable activity sensors, and emerging smart implants are positively influencing postoperative follow-up after joint replacement. This narrative review synthesizes recent advances and evidence across these modalities. Smartphone apps consistently improve patient engagement, adherence, pain management, and functional recovery, while enabling scalable data capture. Wearables provide objective, continuous measures of mobility and range of motion and have shown acceptable accuracy in arthroplasty populations. Combined app-plus-sensor programs, including self-directed rehabilitation, achieve clinical outcomes comparable to standard care in randomized trials and can reduce costs and in-person visits. Telemedicine and home-based telerehabilitation demonstrate noninferiority to face-to-face physiotherapy for total joint arthroplasty, with high patient satisfaction and logistical advantages. Smart implants, though earlier in clinical adoption, yield unique biomechanical insights that may personalize rehabilitation and enable early detection of complications. Key challenges include heterogeneous study designs and metrics, device placement-dependent accuracy, digital literacy and connectivity barriers (especially among older adults or rural patients), data security and regulatory considerations, and technical constraints for implant power and wireless communication. Overall, remote follow-up using apps and wearables is a credible adjunct, or alternative, to conventional pathways after joint replacement; scaling impact will require standardized outcomes, interoperability, robust privacy safeguards, and prospective trials that link digital signals to meaningful clinical endpoints.

Indexed as

joint replacementremote follow-upsmartphonetelemedicinewearable activity sensors

Identifiers

PMID41245918
PMCPMC12612651

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.