ArticleJournal of neurosurgery. Spine2021
Smartphone GPS signatures of patients undergoing spine surgery correlate with mobility and current gold standard outcome measures.
Article in Journal of neurosurgery. Spine, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed.
- Intensive Longitudinal Data Collection Methods in Health Research: Tutorial for Selecting Measures and Designing a Sampling Protocol.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2026Article
- Beyond one-time PROMs: high-frequency single-item mobile ePROM tracking of postoperative recovery in spine surgery-a prospective feasibility study.European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society · 2026Article
- High-Frequency Global Postoperative Status PROMs Track Pain Peaks and Analgesic Use After Degenerative Lumbar Spine Surgery.Global spine journal · 2026Article
- Exploring the Relationship Between Smartphone GPS Patterns and Quality of Life in Patients With Advanced Cancer and Their Family Caregivers: Longitudinal Study.JMIR formative research · 2025Article
- Association of Daily Step Count With Patient Knowledge, Step Tracking, and Physical Factors in Patients With Spine Pathology.American journal of lifestyle medicine · 2024Article
- Article
- Smartphone-based activity tracking for spine patients: Current technology and future opportunities.World neurosurgery: X · 2024Review
- Potential Applications of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in Spine Surgery Across the Continuum of Care.International journal of spine surgery · 2023Article
- Smartphone-based digital phenotyping for characterizing post-operative recovery in patients undergoing surgery for cervical myelopathy.Frontiers in neurologyArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectivePatient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are currently the gold standard to evaluate patient physical performance and ability to recover after spine surgery. However, PROMs have significant limitations due to the qualitative and subjective nature of the information reported as well as the impossibility of using this method in a continuous manner. The smartphone global positioning system (GPS) can be used to provide continuous, quantitative, and objective information on patient mobility. The aim of this study was to use daily mobility features derived from the smartphone GPS to characterize the perioperative period of patients undergoing spine surgery and to compare these objective measurements to PROMs, the current gold standard.
methodsEight daily mobility features were derived from smartphone GPS data in a population of 39 patients undergoing spine surgery for a period of 2 months starting 3weeks before surgery. In parallel, three different PROMs for pain (visual analog scale [VAS]), disability (Oswestry Disability Index [ODI]) and functional status (Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System [PROMIS]) were serially measured. Segmented linear regression analysis was used to assess trends before and after surgery. The Student paired t-test was used to compare pre- and postoperative PROM scores. Pearson's correlation was calculated between the daily average of each GPS-based mobility feature and the daily average of each PROM score during the recovery period.
resultsSmartphone GPS features provided data documenting a reduction in mobility during the immediate postoperative period, followed by a progressive and steady increase with a return to baseline mobility values 1 month after surgery. PROMs measuring pain, physical performance, and disability were significantly different 1 month after surgery compared to the 2 immediate preoperative weeks. The GPS-based features presented moderate to strong linear correlation with pain VAS and PROMIS physical score during the recovery period (Pearson r > 0.7), whereas the ODI and PROMIS mental scores presented a weak correlation (Pearson r approximately 0.4).
conclusionsSmartphone-derived GPS features were shown to accurately characterize perioperative mobility trends in patients undergoing surgery for spine-related diseases. Features related to time (rather than distance) were better at describing patient physical and performance status. Smartphone GPS has the potential to be used for the development of accurate, noninvasive and personalized tools for patient mobility monitoring after surgery.
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