Clinical outcomes associated with an internet-enabled physician-nurse collaborative pathway for benign breast-mass day surgery: a nonrandomized nonconcurrent controlled study
This nonrandomized, nonconcurrent controlled study found that an internet-enabled physician-nurse collaborative pathway for benign breast-mass day surgery significantly improved preoperative anxiety, health knowledge, and patient satisfaction compared to conventional care, though the lower rate of unplanned visits was not statistically significant and the non-random design limits causal conclusions.
Original paper licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). This is an AI-generated explanation of the paper below. It is not written or endorsed by the authors. For technical accuracy, refer to the original paper. Read full disclaimer
In the world of modern medicine, day surgery has become a standard way to treat common conditions like benign breast lumps. Instead of staying in a hospital bed for days, patients undergo the procedure and go home the same day. This approach is efficient and less disruptive to daily life, but it creates a unique challenge: the window for teaching patients what to do is incredibly short. Once they leave the hospital, the heavy lifting of recovery falls entirely on them and their families. They must remember how to care for their wounds, manage pain, recognize warning signs, and understand complex medical reports, all while navigating the uncertainty that often comes with surgery. When information is scattered or confusing, anxiety can rise, and patients may end up making unnecessary trips back to the doctor, straining both their own peace of mind and the healthcare system.
To address this, a team of researchers in China explored whether a structured, digital partnership between doctors and nurses could smooth out this transition. They designed a system that uses a hospital's internet platform to deliver information at specific times, ensuring patients receive the right guidance exactly when they need it. The study focused on whether this digital hand-holding could calm nerves, improve understanding, and keep patients out of the emergency room. The results suggest that when medical teams work together through technology to guide patients step-by-step, the experience of surgery becomes significantly less frightening and more understandable, though the team remains cautious about claiming it solves every safety problem.
The study took place at a large hospital in Changsha, where researchers compared two groups of patients who underwent benign breast-mass surgery over different periods in 2025. The first group received the standard care available at the time, which involved face-to-face conversations, paper handouts, and routine phone calls. The second group, arriving a few months later, used a new, internet-enabled pathway. This system was not just a website with information; it was a coordinated effort where nurses and doctors used a digital platform to send timed messages, answer questions, and check on patients. For instance, a nurse would send a reminder the day before surgery about what to wear and what to bring, while a doctor would be available online to explain the procedure. After the surgery, the platform continued to guide patients on wound care and how to interpret their pathology results, with nurses checking in to see if patients had read the instructions and calling those who hadn't.
The researchers measured how these different approaches affected the patients' feelings and knowledge. They found that the group using the digital pathway felt significantly less anxious before their surgery compared to the group receiving standard care. On a scale used to measure anxiety, the digital group saw a much larger drop in their stress levels. More importantly, their understanding of the surgery and recovery process improved dramatically. While both groups learned something, the patients using the digital system mastered nearly double the amount of medical knowledge regarding their procedure, diet, and wound care. This suggests that receiving information in small, repeated doses over several days is far more effective than trying to absorb everything in a single conversation on the day of the procedure.
Patient satisfaction also told a clear story. Among those who responded to the survey, nearly all patients in the digital group said they were satisfied with their care, compared to about two-thirds of the standard care group. The digital system seemed to remove the guesswork, giving patients a clear sense of who to contact and what to expect. However, when looking at safety, the picture was less definitive. The researchers tracked whether patients needed to make unplanned visits to the hospital within a week of surgery. Fewer patients in the digital group made these extra visits, but the difference was small enough that it could have happened by chance. The study did not have enough participants to prove that the digital system definitely prevented these visits, only that it showed a promising trend.
The authors are careful to note that their study had limitations. Because the groups were formed based on when they arrived at the hospital and whether they were willing to use a digital platform, the two groups were not perfectly identical. Some patients in the digital group might have been more comfortable with technology or more motivated to learn, which could have influenced the results. Additionally, the study was conducted at a single hospital, and the researchers did not adjust their calculations to account for every possible difference between the groups. Therefore, while the findings strongly suggest that this collaborative digital approach improves the patient experience and knowledge, the team concludes that more rigorous testing is needed before it can be declared a universal solution. The work highlights that when doctors and nurses use technology to stay connected with patients, it creates a more supportive environment, turning a potentially stressful recovery into a clearer, more manageable journey.
Drowning in papers in your field?
Get daily digests of the most novel papers matching your research keywords — with technical summaries, in your language.