Improving pain treatment with a smartphone app: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Background: Chronic pain has become a major health problem across the world, especially in older adults. Unfortunately, the effectiveness of medical interventions is modest. Some have argued that assessment strategies should be improved if the impact of medical interventions is to be improved. Ecological momentary assessment using smartphones is now considered the gold standard in monitoring in health settings, including chronic pain. However, to the best of our knowledge, there is no randomized controlled trial to show that telemonitoring using a smartphone app can indeed improve the effectiveness of medical treatments in adults with chronic pain. The goal of this study will be to explore the effects of using a smartphone app for telemonitoring adults with chronic pain.

Telemonitoring in Chronic Pain Management Using Smartphone Apps: A Randomized Controlled Trial Comparing Usual Assessment against App-Based Monitoring with and without Clinical Alarms

“…The study protocol—including a description of the planned procedures and analyses—was published before starting the recruitment [ 18 ]. However, we summarize the main study characteristics, as well as any deviations from the original plan, in the next lines.…”

“…Due to its chronic nature, management of chronic pain often requires prolonged and regular contact with the health care system [ 18 ]. In this sense, it is important to note that a move towards self-management will be needed, rather than relying on the care of health professionals [ 19 ].…”

“…First, because undesired events (e.g., side medication effects or decreased treatment effectiveness) can occur at different treatment stages [ 34 ], which means that control calls will often occur before or long after unwanted events occur. Additionally, because such phone calls require the active participation of a healthcare professional, which makes this procedure resource-consuming and ineffective [ 18 ].…”

Aplicativos para dispositivos móveis voltados para a segurança no cuidado ao paciente

“…A maior parte dos apps teve foco nos pacientes, em detrimento dos destinados ao auxílio do exercício clínico dos profissionais de saúde. Afunilando aquela categoria, tem-se estudos específicos com idosos (Carrillo, Guilabert, Pérez-Jover & Mira, 2015;Tsenga & Taiwan, 2014), pacientes em condição crônica (Suso-ribera et al, 2018;Tsenga & Taiwan, 2014) e pacientes oncológicos (Breen et al, 2017). Research, Society and Development, v. 9, n. 2, e166922179, 2020(CC BY 4.0) | ISSN 2525-3409 | DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.33448/rsd-v9i2.2179 Observou-se que a descrição das aplicações nem sempre trazia o dispositivo móvel utilizado e também o nome do aplicativo desenvolvido.…”

“…Ainda visando maior segurança em todo o processo assistencial de saúde, os artigos 14 e 16 descritos no quadro 02, despontam o monitoramento de pacientes como uma estratégia válida para a detecção precoce de eventos indesejados. O telemonitoramento pode ser um recurso útil para aumentar a eficácia do tratamento e gerenciar de forma otimizada pacientes em quimioterapia com risco de efeitos colaterais significativos, permitindo o alerta precoce no caso em que intervenções sejam necessárias (Suso-ribera et al, 2018;Breen et al, 2017).…”