Plymfit Study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Plymfit Study: A study to investigate the feasibility of wrist-worn smartwatch use in perioperative care
IRAS ID
334652
Contact name
Alexander Hunter
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University Hospitals Plymouth NHS trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
It takes time to recover from major surgery. If patients are more active before surgery, they will recover quicker after. Wrist watches are a new method that can track and assess daily activity. First, we need to know what is a “normal” amount of activity. Then we can find ways to improve this.
We aim to find out the number of steps people walk each day before and after surgery using smart watches. We plan to study a group of 50 patients. They will be having major surgery on their tummy. Each person in the study will be asked to wear a small wrist watch. We will do this for 2 weeks before and 4 weeks after surgery. The watch will link with the patients phone or a relative’s.
We will collect data alongside the watch data. We will ask people to complete a short set of surveys and also collect information from hospital records. This will include information about the patients health and the length of time in hospital after surgery. We will study whether any health problems occurred after surgery. We will study how long people take to recover. We will study how easy it was to wear the watch.
Patients do an exercise bike test before surgery. This is part of normal care before surgery. We will use these results. We will also compare this with the wrist watches.
This project is designed test how possible it is to collect this data. In the future we will use this information to design a trial to test if these devices can actually help people get fitter. We hope this will help people recover faster from surgery.
REC name
South Central - Berkshire B Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
24/SC/0364
Date of REC Opinion
4 Dec 2024
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion