Development of an integrated solution for patients with neurostimulator for chronic pain in times of COVID-19: A mobile application with a support center

Background The use of health apps to support the treatment of chronic pain is gaining importance. Most available pain management apps are still lacking in content quality and quantity as their developers neither involve health experts to ensure target group suitability nor use gamification to engage and motivate the user. To close this gap, we aimed to develop a gamified pain management app, Pain-Mentor. Objective To determine whether medical professionals would approve of Pain-Mentor’s concept and content, this study aimed to evaluate the quality of the app’s first prototype with experts from the field of chronic pain management and to discover necessary improvements. Methods A total of 11 health professionals with a background in chronic pain treatment and 2 mobile health experts participated in this study. Each expert first received a detailed presentation of the app. Afterward, they tested Pain-Mentor and then rated its quality using the mobile application rating scale (MARS) in a semistructured interview. Results The experts found the app to be of excellent general (mean 4.54, SD 0.55) and subjective quality (mean 4.57, SD 0.43). The app-specific section was rated as good (mean 4.38, SD 0.75). Overall, the experts approved of the app’s content, namely, pain and stress management techniques, behavior change techniques, and gamification. They believed that the use of gamification in Pain-Mentor positively influences the patients’ motivation and engagement and thus has the potential to promote the learning of pain management techniques. Moreover, applying the MARS in a semistructured interview provided in-depth insight into the ratings and concrete suggestions for improvement. Conclusions The experts rated Pain-Mentor to be of excellent quality. It can be concluded that experts perceived the use of gamification in this pain management app in a positive manner. This showed that combining pain management with gamification did not negatively affect the app’s integrity. This study was therefore a promising first step in the development of Pain-Mentor.

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A User-Centered Approach to Design a Mobile Application for Chronic Pain Management

Modelling Measurement and Control C ◽

10.18280/mmc_c.811-405 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 81 (1-4) ◽

pp. 24-29

Author(s):

Yingdong Liu ◽

Benoît Encelle ◽

Karim Sehaba

Keyword(s):

Chronic Pain ◽

Pain Management ◽

Mobile Application ◽

Evaluation Process ◽

Design Guidelines ◽

Chronic Pain Management ◽

Usability Tests ◽

Computer Scientists ◽

Persona Development ◽

User Centered

This paper presents a user-centered approach for the design/re-design of a mobile application for chronic pain management, with a focus on chronic low back pain, sometimes referred to as "invisible disability". Within the framework of a multidisciplinary project involving physicians, patients and computer scientists, the work presented here describes firstly an identification and representation process of the needs/expectations of the users of such an application (patients/physicians), based on a data-driven persona development method and, secondly, an evaluation process of the user experience (UX) of the current version of the application, using among others usability tests. The aim of the approach is to establish (re-)design guidelines in order to improve this kind of application.

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Toward Gamified Pain Management Apps: Mobile Application Rating Scale–Based Quality Assessment of Pain-Mentor’s First Prototype Through an Expert Study (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.13170 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Alexandra Hoffmann ◽

Corinna A Faust-Christmann ◽

Gregor Zolynski ◽

Gabriele Bleser

Keyword(s):

Chronic Pain ◽

Pain Management ◽

Mobile Application ◽

Rating Scale ◽

Pain Treatment ◽

Semistructured Interview ◽

Content Quality ◽

Management Techniques ◽

Health Experts

BACKGROUND The use of health apps to support the treatment of chronic pain is gaining importance. Most available pain management apps are still lacking in content quality and quantity as their developers neither involve health experts to ensure target group suitability nor use gamification to engage and motivate the user. To close this gap, we aimed to develop a gamified pain management app, Pain-Mentor. OBJECTIVE To determine whether medical professionals would approve of Pain-Mentor’s concept and content, this study aimed to evaluate the quality of the app’s first prototype with experts from the field of chronic pain management and to discover necessary improvements. METHODS A total of 11 health professionals with a background in chronic pain treatment and 2 mobile health experts participated in this study. Each expert first received a detailed presentation of the app. Afterward, they tested Pain-Mentor and then rated its quality using the mobile application rating scale (MARS) in a semistructured interview. RESULTS The experts found the app to be of excellent general (mean 4.54, SD 0.55) and subjective quality (mean 4.57, SD 0.43). The app-specific section was rated as good (mean 4.38, SD 0.75). Overall, the experts approved of the app’s content, namely, pain and stress management techniques, behavior change techniques, and gamification. They believed that the use of gamification in Pain-Mentor positively influences the patients’ motivation and engagement and thus has the potential to promote the learning of pain management techniques. Moreover, applying the MARS in a semistructured interview provided in-depth insight into the ratings and concrete suggestions for improvement. CONCLUSIONS The experts rated Pain-Mentor to be of excellent quality. It can be concluded that experts perceived the use of gamification in this pain management app in a positive manner. This showed that combining pain management with gamification did not negatively affect the app’s integrity. This study was therefore a promising first step in the development of Pain-Mentor. CLINICALTRIAL

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Feasibility and Acceptance Testing of a Mobile Application Providing Psychosocial Support for Parents of Children and Adolescents With Chronic Pain: Results of a Nonrandomized Trial

Journal of Pediatric Psychology ◽

10.1093/jpep/jsz007 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 44 (6) ◽

pp. 645-655 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Laura C Seidman ◽

Sarah R Martin ◽

Meredith W Trant ◽

Laura A Payne ◽

Lonnie K Zeltzer ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Chronic Pain ◽

Children And Adolescents ◽

Mobile Application ◽

Psychosocial Support ◽

Acceptance Testing ◽

Nonrandomized Trial

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Mobile Application-Based Interventions for Chronic Pain Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Effectiveness

Journal of Clinical Medicine ◽

10.3390/jcm9113557 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 9 (11) ◽

pp. 3557

Author(s):

Ann-Christin Pfeifer ◽

Riaz Uddin ◽

Paul Schröder-Pfeifer ◽

Felix Holl ◽

Walter Swoboda ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Chronic Pain ◽

Mobile Application ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Treatment Options ◽

Bibliographic Databases ◽

Final Sample ◽

Design For All ◽

Chronic Pain Patients ◽

Pain Patients

Chronic pain is one of the major causes of disability in the general population. Even though there are effective treatment options available for reducing symptoms, these treatments often do not have consistent lasting effects. As the usage of mobile devices has increased enormously during the last few years, mobile application-based treatment options are widespread. Such app-based programs are not yet empirically proven but might enable patients to become more independent in their pain management in order to prevent relapse. The aim of this meta-analysis was to summarize the literature on mobile application-based interventions for chronic pain patients. Therefore, three electronic bibliographic databases, PubMed, PsycINFO, and Web of Science, were searched for studies that investigated the effectiveness of mobile application-based intervention for chronic pain on pain intensity. The final sample comprised twenty-two studies, with a total of 4679 individuals. Twelve of these twenty-two studies used a randomized control trial (RCT) design, while ten studies only used an observational design. For all twenty-two studies, a small but significant effect (d = −0.40) was found when compared to baseline measures or control groups. The results suggest that apps-based treatment can be helpful in reducing pain, especially in the long-term.

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