Background: e-Health is a widespread healthcare practice in the medical community, supported by technology-based applications aiming to deliver health services in an efficient manner, improving the quality of life and providing a wide range of health and socio-economic benefits to patients.
Objective: To investigate the use of e-Health and mobile applications for the follow-up of major joint arthroplasty patients and the socio-economic impact of e-Health services on arthroplasty patients.
Methods: Studies published after 2000 in English language, enrolling patients who underwent total knee or hip replacement, applying e-Health solutions and highlighting the economic benefits obtained by patients, doctors and healthcare systems were considered for inclusion in the present study.
Results: Five studies satisfied our inclusion criteria and were included in qualitative analysis. In this paper, the use of e-Health for the follow-up of major joint arthroplasty patients and the positive impact in terms of cost, time and hospital visits reduction by applying e-Health solutions on arthroplasty patients are reviewed in detail as reported in the included studies.
Conclusion: The majority of the included studies reported a positive impact in terms of cost, time and hospital visits reduction.
Keywords: Arthroplasty; cost effectiveness; e-Health; healthcare; telemedicine.