Telemedicine for international travelers through a Smartphone-based monitoring platform (Trip Doctor®).

BACKGROUND: Overall, more than 50% of international travelers develop symptoms while traveling and 55% of them seek medical assistance during the trip. We conducted a study to evaluate the usefulness of a Smartphone app called TRIP Doctor® to provide telemedicine to international travelers. METHODS: Participants over 18 years old attending our travel clinic at Hospital Clinic in Barcelona were invited to participate during 2017-2019. After downloading the app, the health status of the traveler was monitored on a daily basis, providing specific medical advice and offering remote contact with specialized physicians through an integrated chat, if needed. RESULTS: From 449 users, 59 (13%) contacted for medical assistance through the app during the trip. Main reasons for telemedicine were diarrhea (25.7%), skin conditions (19.7%) and fever (12.1%). Among patients who contacted, 90% of the travelers did not require to be referred to a local doctor. Symptomatic treatment was the main treatment prescribed (38%). In a 14.7% of the cases a follow-up was not required, a 63.2% recovered and 22.1% were loss of follow-up. After a multivariate analysis, duration of trip >14 days was found to be the only factor associated with the use of telemedicine (OR 2.2, CI 95% 1.1-4.5, p = 0.03). CONCLUSION: In conclusion, travelers using telemedicine travelled for longer periods of time and mostly contacted for mild symptoms which could be solved successfully by remote assistance with our specialized doctors.

Real-time incidence of travel-related symptoms through a smartphone-based app remote monitoring system: a pilot study.

Trip Doctor®, a Smartphone-based app monitoring system, was developed to detect infections among travelers in real-time. For testing, 106 participants were recruited (62.2% male, mean age 36 years (SD = 11)). Majority of trips were for tourism and main destinations were in South East Asia. Mean travel duration was 14 days (SD = 10). Diarrhea was the most frequently reported symptom (15.5%). The system demonstrated adequate usability and is ready to be used on a larger scale.