Background and Aims In our institution a multistep manual calculation is required to determine the safe dose of local anaesthetics for the peripheral nerve block (PNB) and HVLIA¹. Informally some colleagues reported the process to be burdensome. We wanted to understand whether an app could improve this process.

Methods Following a pre-intervention survey we created a prototype app http://hvlia.herokuapp.com/. The app allows the user to select patient weight and the type of PNB, and calculates the correct dose of HVLIA. We released the pilot app with a clear disclaimer to ensure evaluation alongside clinicians standard practice. A followup survey assessed feasibility and acceptability to clinicians.

• Download figure
• Open in new tab
• Download powerpoint

Abstract B160 Figure 2

Results The pre-intervention survey revealed; only 30% of respondents thought the manual calculations were easy to perform, 70% of respondents calculations took up to 5 minutes to complete with 50% using pen and paper and 100% using a phone calculator. Following the app pilot; 100% of users reported that it made calculations easier and were confident that it would reduce errors. Increased efficiency was observed with 75% of users reporting using the app took <1 minute. All users reported high levels of trust in results obtained from the app.

Conclusions Using a plan-do-study-act approach we built an app that local clinician-testers report makes dose calculation easier and quicker compared to their usual practice for our local HVLIA protocols. To complete the act phase we will need to conduct a formal local trial, and seek approval of the app’s medical device status.