**Abstract**

Surgical care is an essential component of health care. This basic universal right is not available to everyone. Indeed, countries with low economic resources suffer from a lack of access to surgical care and the most developed countries will have to reduce the cost of health care to ensure the sustainability of provided care quality. New communication technologies have invaded the field of health and have led to the development of a new concept of mobile health. The purpose of this paper is to answer the following question: Can these new tools, and in particular the Smartphone, remedy, even partially, the lack of health care in poor countries and reduce the cost of health care in rich countries? New communication tools, led by the Smartphone, have the capacity to capture, store, retrieve and transmit data to provide instant and personalized information to individuals. This information could be a key element in health systems and can contribute to monitoring health status and improving patient safety and care quality. Mobile telephony via applications and connected objects can facilitate the pre-, intra- and post-operative management of patients. These mobile systems also facilitate the collection and transmission of data. This will allow better analysis of this data and will greatly pave the way to the introduction of artificial intelligence in medicine and surgery. The Smartphone can be used as an important tool for both, diagnosis care and surgical training. Surgeons must adapt their equipment to local resources while respecting safety standards. Covid-19 has put health systems around the world under severe strain. Decision-makers are being forced to make adjustments. The long-vaunted digital health is becoming a reality and a necessity. Healthcare authorities and strategy specialists face challenges in terms of disease prevention and therapy, as well as in terms of health economics and management.

**Keywords:** smartphone, surgery, mobile health, medical information

### **1. Introduction**

Surgical care is an essential component of health care. This basic universal right is not available to everyone. Indeed, countries with low economic resources suffer from lack of access to surgical care and the most developed countries will have to reduce the cost of health care to ensure the sustainability of quality care provided.

It is estimated that two-thirds of the world's population do not have access to safe and affordable surgery and more than two billion people are unable to receive surgical care due to the lack of equipment and human resources. As a result, limited access to surgery kills nearly 17 million people each year. This is more than the number of deaths from HIV, TB and malaria combined [1, 2].

The economic inequalities on our planet are fully reflected in the field of health as 60% of surgical procedures are performed for only 15% of the world's population and only 6% of surgical procedures are performed for poor countries where one third of the world's population resides [3].

High-income countries have better indicators of quality and safety of care. However, this is associated with higher health care costs. The increase in health expenditure in developed countries is faster than the growth of the world economy. This seems to become unsustainable in the medium and long term.

New communication technologies have invaded the field of health and have been at the origin of the development of a new concept of mobile health. The purpose of this paper is to answer the following question: Can these new tools, and in particular the Smartphone, remedy, even partially, the lack of health care in poor countries and reduce the cost of health care in rich countries?

New communication tools, led only by the Smartphone, have the capacity to capture, store, retrieve and transmit data to provide instant and personalized information to individuals. This information could be a key element in health systems and can contribute to monitoring health status and improving patient safety and care quality.

Healthcare authorities and strategy specialists face challenges in terms of disease prevention and therapy, as well as in terms of health economics and management.

In addition, the Covid-19 global pandemic has suddenly put everything into question and put health systems around the world to the test. The long-vaunted digital health is becoming a reality.

### **2. Current state of surgery in the world**

#### **2.1 Surgical expenditure**

High-income countries have excellent indicators of quality and safety of care [4], but this is associated with high health care costs in these countries.

The increase in health care expenditure in developed countries is faster than the growth of their economies. For example, in the United States of America, health expenditure has been increasing rapidly and in 2019 it accounted for 17% of gross domestic product [5].

For low-income countries, the situation is quite different. According to the Lancet Commission on Surgery, the cost of surgery and anesthesia causes "catastrophic" health care costs for 33 million people each year [6]. The problem lies mainly in the direct costs of surgical care, which are often high [7].

Given that, this burden has deleterious effects on health care systems worldwide, it has become necessary to search for solutions to reduce the cost of surgery.

#### **2.2 Access to surgery**

Despite the efforts made, at least half of the world's population lacks access to essential health services and does not enjoy the fundamental right to healthcare in practice. Striking urban–rural health inequities are still reported in many countries [8].

The Lancet Commission has established 6 key indicators for the strength of the surgical system in the world [9]:

*Smartphone and Surgery, Reality or Gadget? DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.98889*


These indicators have revealed a perilous state of the surgical system worldwide that needs immediate improvement to achieve universal access to safe, affordable surgical and anesthesia care when needed.

It is estimated that 9 out of 10 people in low- and middle-income countries lack access to basic surgical care and that 143 million additional surgical interventions are needed each year to save lives and prevent disabilities [10].

It should also be noted that the inadequacy and uneven distribution of specialist surgical stuff has further compounded the disparity in access to care [11].

Therefore, the whole world and poor countries in particular need to develop policies to make surgical care easier to perform and learn.
