Engagement with Manage My Pain mobile health application among patients at the Transitional Pain Service

Abstract

Objective Mobile health platforms have become an important component of pain self-management programs and hundreds of mobile applications are commercially available for patients to monitor pain. However, few of these applications have been developed in collaboration with healthcare professionals or have been critically evaluated. Manage My Pain is a user-driven mobile health platform developed by ManagingLife in collaboration with clinician researchers. Manage My Pain allows patients to keep a “pain record” and supports communication of this information with clinicians. The current report describes a user engagement study of Manage My Pain among patients at the Transitional Pain Service (TPS) at Toronto General Hospital, a multidisciplinary clinic for patients at high risk of developing postsurgical pain. Methods Patients at the TPS were encouraged to register on Manage My Pain as one component of a larger, non-randomized prospective study of treatment predictors and treatment enhancement. Uptake of the application and rates of registration, use, and retention were tracked for 90 days. Results Of the 196 patients who consented to the larger study, 132 (67%) also provided consent to the Manage My Pain component, indicating that they found this to be an acceptable treatment adjunct, and 119 (61%) completed registration. Of those who used the app, 67.9% and 43.2% continued to use Manage My Pain beyond 30 and 90 days, respectively. On average, users engaged with the app for 93.14 days (SD = 151.9 days) logged an average of 47.39 total records (SD = 136.1). Conclusions Manage My Pain was found acceptable by a majority of patients at an academic pain management program. Rates of user registration and retention were favorable compared to those reported by other applications. Further research is needed to develop strategies to retain users and maximize patient benefit.

User Engagement and Clinical Impact of the Manage My Pain App in Patients With Chronic Pain: A Real-World, Multi-site Trial

“…It is possible that the chronicity of pain in participants in our study and the lack of effective therapies made patients in our study interested in exploring the potential for help from the app offered in our study. The rates of initial engagement with the app reported in our study—initially 73.6% (181/246), with a gradual decrease to 28.0% (69/246) at the long-term follow-up—are consistent with those reported in literature by our group [ 47 ] and others [ 45 , 48 , 49 ] and appear to be better than the rates for other apps [ 24 ]. We measured ongoing engagement with the digital app, unlike other studies that evaluate merely the intent of patients to engage with digital health solutions [ 46 ].…”

Review and Analysis of German Mobile Apps for Inflammatory Bowel Disease Management Using the Mobile Application Rating Scale: Systematic Search in App Stores and Content Analysis

“…There were also some studies based on the app Manage My Pain [ 30 - 32 ]. A past study analyzed patient adherence and acceptance for this app [ 37 ]. We identified 1 German study of the app Cara Care, which is for irritable bowel syndrome [ 33 ].…”

“…The app Deutsches Gesundheitsportal was the only app providing evidence (by quoting studies), while the app Carenity enabled patients to complete surveys for clinical studies. There was only one app, Manage My Pain, for which studies were available on function and patient adherence [ 30 , 32 , 37 ]. Another shortcoming of the examined apps was that none offered IBD-specific scores, such as the partial Mayo score for ulcerative colitis [ 48 ] or the Harvey-Bradshaw Index for Crohn disease [ 49 ].…”

Important considerations with respect to reducing the transition from acute to persistent postoperative pain

“…The service at TGH also has an integrated technological pain monitoring program (e.g. Manage My Pain app) which now serves as a database and has demonstrated the ability to enhance patient care and self-management [20]. The TPS fills a specific care gap and provides close follow-up (as early as 1-2 weeks from initial in-hospital consult) for patients that otherwise may not be seen by their surgical team for 6-8 weeks postoperatively.…”