The success story El Meu Quiròfan: from a final project to Bellvitge Hospital

Since last July, Bellvitge University Hospital has been successfully using the El Meu Quiròfan (My Operating Room) web app, designed to improve the experiences of patients and their families in surgical procedures.

The app was launched by doctor Esther Méndez, an anaesthesiologist at the hospital and a graduate of the University Master's Degree in eHealth of the UOC (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya). In fact, El Meu Quiròfan was the result of her master's degree final project, and in 2020 she was awarded a grant under the first call for applications for the "From Idea to Project" grants of the UOC's eHealth Center. The grant included a financial endowment and mentoring to carry out the project. She also received a PECT Innovation Call 2021 grant from the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), with EU funding.

This is a UOC success story because "it achieves the ultimate goal of the University Master's Degree in eHealth, which is to have a social impact with a direct effect on citizens," said Carme Carrion, associate dean for research at the Faculty of Health Sciences and researcher at the eHealth Center.

According to Méndez, people who have to undergo surgery attend preoperative appointments where they are given all the relevant information for their process but, as they tend to be nervous at the time, they only retain up to 20% of the instructions received. Méndez's aim was "to put all this information together in a web app for patients to read calmly at home".

The El Meu Quiròfan app is integrated in the hospital's general app (El Meu HUB) and provides specific information about the surgery, what should happen beforehand and the subsequent recovery. The aim is to make life easier for patients and help them make informed decisions about the process they are undergoing. The app has been co-created by healthcare professionals and patients.

A talk at the UOC to publicize the project

To publicize the project's development process and impact, the eHealth Center and Bellvitge University Hospital have jointly organized a special event: "eHealth Talks: co-creation in e-health: the success story of El Meu Quiròfan. Improving the patient experience at Bellvitge University Hospital". The talk will take place on 15 May at 3 p.m. (CEST) at the Interdisciplinary R&I Hub of the UOC.

Promoting research with social impact

According to Marta Aymerich, director of the eHealth Center, "the eHealth Center's vision is to change the health paradigm, putting people at the centre. El Meu Quiròfan is an example of translational research, which takes into account the users who have to use it and puts them at the centre."

Through its From Idea to Project grants, the UOC's eHealth Center promotes innovative projects such as El Meu Quiròfan, thus promoting the transfer and exchange of knowledge between the university and the health system. Including this one, seven e-health projects have now been promoted with this grant.

UOC R&I

The UOC's research and innovation (R&I) is helping overcome pressing challenges faced by global societies in the 21st century by studying interactions between technology and human & social sciences with a specific focus on the network society, e-learning and e-health.

Over 500 researchers and more than 50 research groups work in the UOC's seven faculties, its eLearning Research programme and its two research centres: the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) and the eHealth Center (eHC).

The university also develops online learning innovations at its eLearning Innovation Center (eLinC), as well as UOC community entrepreneurship and knowledge transfer via the Hubbik platform.

Open knowledge and the goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development serve as strategic pillars for the UOC's teaching, research and innovation. More information: research.uoc.edu.