Mobile applications in peripheral arterial disease (PAD): a review and introduction of a new innovative telemonitoring application: JBZetje.

Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is an occlusive vascular disease of the lower extremities with increasing incidence and prevalence numbers and therefore rising health care costs. Mobile applications have great potential to improve health system efficiency and can assist in overcoming the increasing health care costs. In this review all available mobile applications developed for PAD are summarized and a new innovative application is introduced.

The relationship between psychological distress and impairment of disease-specific quality-of-life compared between liquid sclerocompression therapy and invasive treatments in patients with superficial venous disease during a one-year follow-up.

Introduction: Superficial venous disease (SVD) is a very common disease and much research has been done towards finding the ideal treatment and discovering the pathophysiology of SVD. Not much is known about the psychological burden of SVD. Current guidelines and scientific publications tend to focus on clinical and physiological aspects of SVD.

Feasibility of Self-Monitoring Rheumatoid Arthritis With a Smartphone App: Results of Two Mixed-Methods Pilot Studies.

Background: Several mobile apps that monitor symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) exist, but a recent systematic review indicated that high-quality apps are lacking. When patients self-monitor their own disease with patient-reported outcomes (PROs) and self-initiate care at the right moment, it may be possible to reduce the frequency of their clinic visits, which would reduce health care burden and costs. We developed an app, that is, the MijnReuma Reade app, for this purpose and performed 2 pilot tests with weekly self-monitoring.

A Smartphone App for Self-Monitoring of Rheumatoid Arthritis Disease Activity to Assist Patient-Initiated Care: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Telemedicine based on self-measurement of disease activity could be one of the key components to create the health care system of the future. Previous publications in various medical fields have shown that it is possible to safely telemonitor patients while reducing the number of outpatient clinic visits. For this purpose, we developed a mobile phone app for patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), which allows them to self-monitor their disease.

The inability of venous occlusion air plethysmography to identify patients who will benefit from stenting of deep venous obstruction.

Background The aim of this study was to assess whether venous occlusion plethysmography can be used to identify venous obstruction and predict clinical success of stenting. Method Receiver operated characteristic curves were used to determine the ability of venous occlusion plethysmography to discriminate between the presence and absence of obstruction, measured by duplex ultrasound and magnetic resonance venography, and to discriminate between successful and non-successful stenting, measured by VEINES-QOL/Sym. Result Two hundred thirty-seven limbs in 196 patients were included.

Digital health assessment in rheumatology: current and future possibilities.

Digital assessment and graphical feedback of patient-reported outcome measures such as the Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) could increase empowerment and involvement of patients in their own care process. The App ecosystem that Reade is building is an example of how digital assessment using mobile devices can be integrated into existing hospital IT infrastructure.

An overview of the most commonly used venous quality of life and clinical outcome measurements.

Background: Modern medicine should no longer rely solely on technical success to evaluate treatments. The treatment of venous disease has seen many new developments, insights, and treatment modalities. Combining clinical scores with quality of life (QoL) outcome measurements is becoming the new norm for evaluation of treatments.

The relation between clinical scores and quality-of-life in long-term follow-up.

Introduction: Quality-of-life and severity scores are both popular measures in medicine. For deep venous obstruction, the VEINES-QOL/Sym and venous clinical severity score (VCSS) are widely used. Combining a patient-reported outcome with a clinical severity score should give a more sensitive outcome for treatment results.

Quality-of-life in interventionally treated patients with post-thrombotic syndrome.

Introduction: New developments in the treatment of complex deep venous disease have become available in the last decade. Besides analysing patencies as a surrogate outcome for these treatments we analysed the Quality-of-Life (QoL) changes for successful and failed deep venous treatments.

Materials And Methods: Patients with proven venous occlusive disease, referred to our department of Venous Surgery at the Maastricht University Medical Centre, were included.

Conservative versus surgical treatment of venous leg ulcers: 10-year follow up of a randomized, multicenter trial.

Introduction: Leg ulcers have a large socio-economic impact. Treatment modalities are either conservative or surgical. Conservative treatment involves local treatment and compression therapy.

A European venous registry: pitfalls and opportunities.

Introduction: Evidence based medicine is not the ideal way to assess and evaluate treatment success, failure and outcomes. Modern technology makes it possible to register a multitude of information. Advances in the venous field are fast and require a more efficient way to allow selection based on outcomes and quality.

Short-term follow-up of Quality-of-Life in interventionally treated patients with post-thrombotic syndrome after deep venous occlusion.

Introduction: Treatment of deep venous occlusive disease is gaining popularity, although the results and outcomes of various techniques are yet to be fully studied. Quality-of-Life (QoL) improvement is a valid and important outcome in medicine, but no specific QoL instruments for deep venous pathology exist up until now. We assessed the short term QoL effects of treated patients with post thrombotic syndrome after deep venous occlusion.