Preventing pre-surgical stress can help patients achieve positive outcomes on health and well-being. However, very few patients receive adequate stress relief support prior to a surgical procedure. Provision of education and information about the surgery can be a crucial component of the preoperative experience and is inversely related to levels of preoperative anxiety. However, resource constraints make face-to-face education sessions untenable, given cost considerations and time investment by trained health personnel. Interventions based on mobile health (mHealth) technologies, geared towards increasing familiarity with surgical procedures and hospital environments have been shown to help patients feel informed about possible benefits and risks of available treatment options. mHealth apps and Virtual Reality (VR) can offer patients experience in the perioperative environment that can be helpful in empowering patients and enhancing a more positive experience, while reducing stress. However, available applications focus only on providing informative content, neglecting the importance of patient empowerment with a more robust educational curriculum.
According to this, the Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) CARINAE, aims to support patients and caregivers during the whole perioperative process. SaMD CARINAE consists of an mHealth mobile application for patients and caregivers, a Virtual Reality headset for patients, and a web application for healthcare professionals.