MDconnectME, the Philadelphia-based maker of a mobile and Web app that lets surgical teams send quick updates to designated family members about surgery progress, has launched a pilot program with the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

Surgeons in the Department of Plastic Reconstructive Surgery will be using the MDconnectME system to update the families of people undergoing reconstructive cancer surgery at the Houston institution, MDconnectME CEO Scott Anzel tells MobiHealthNews. "The use case will be the same" as with other MDconnectME customers, Anzel says.

The intended purpose of the app is to provide a little peace of mind to people waiting on surgical patients, though some users have found novel ways of employing the communications tool. Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City, for example, pressed MDconnectME into service to update people about the location and condition of their loved ones when that hospital had to take on extra patients evacuated from other hospitals during superstorm Sandy last October.

Anzel doesn't have many details about the M.D. Anderson pilot just yet. "We're starting with a few key surgeons, and then we'll go from there," he says.

The company will take the M.D. Anderson experience to help refine its product, Anzel adds. "We continue to be committed to making this better," he says.

For more, watch this recent segment about MDconnectME from WPVI-TV in Philadelphia.