Impact of a phone app on nephrology referral

BACKGROUND: Various factors can lead to inadequate nephrology referral decisions being taken by clinicians, but a major cause is unawareness of guidelines, recommendations and indications, or of appropriate timing. Today, tools such as smartphone applications (Apps) can make this knowledge more accessible to non-nephrologist clinicians. Our study aim is to determine the effectiveness of a purpose-built app in this respect. METHODS: In a retrospective study, nephrology referrals were compared before and after the introduction of the app in clinical practice. The initial study population consisted of first visits by patients referred to our department in 2015, before the introduction of the app. In 2016, the smartphone app NefroConsultor began to be implemented in our hospital. We compared the initial study population with the results obtained for patients referred in 2017, when the app was in use, taking into account clinical features considered, such as urinalysis, proteinuria or kidney ultrasound, to determine whether these patients met currently recommended criteria for referral. RESULTS: The total study population consisted of 628 patients, of whom 333 were examined before the introduction of the app (in 2015) and 295 when it was in use (in 2017). Among the first group, 132 (39.6%) met established KDIGO criteria for nephrology referral and were considered to be correctly referred. Among the second group, 200 (67.8%) met the criteria and were considered to be properly referred (P = 0.001). The increase in the rate of intervention success (before–after app) was 28.8% with a binomial effect size display (Cohen’s d effect size) of 0.751. Before the introduction of the app, data for albuminuria were included in 62.5% of nephrology referrals; in 2017, the corresponding value was 87.5% (P = 0.001). In the same line, referrals including urinalysis rose from 68.5% to 85.8% (P = 0.001). Multivariate regression analysis, using referrals meeting KDIGO criteria as the dependent variable and adjusting for age, sex and referring department, showed that the 2017 group (after the introduction of NefroConsultor) was associated with an odds ratio of 3.57 (95% confidence interval 2.52–5.05) for correct referrals, compared with the 2015 group (P = 0.001). References to proteinuria as the reason for nephrology referral also increased from 23.7% to 34.2% (P = 0.004). CONCLUSIONS: Use of the app is associated with more frequent studies of albuminuria at the time of referral and a greater likelihood of proteinuria being cited as the reason for referral. The smartphone app considered can improve the accessibility of information concerning nephrology referrals and related studies.