Pain relief in the palm of your hand: Harnessing mobile health to manage pediatric pain

Abstract

Summary The development and implementation of mobile health (mHealth) interventions provide an opportunity for more optimal management of pediatric pain in the home setting. Leveraging the popularity, mobility, and technological capabilities of digital mobile devices may reduce pediatric pain. Several mHealth applications have already been developed that target the reduction of acute and chronic pediatric pain by digitally delivering intervention strategies in an engaging manner, accumulating pain assessment data, facilitating patient‐provider communication, and providing interactive training. Although several mHealth programs have begun to make strides in the management of pediatric pain, there are still many more possibilities for improvement as greater development and adoption of mHealth practices is on the horizon. Recommendations are provided that advocate for continued advancement of pediatric pain mHealth implementation with an emphasis on robust scientific evaluation, a structured approach to development and design elements that enhance engagement. Increased awareness about the positive influence of mHealth along with the encouragement of researchers and healthcare providers to promote and develop mHealth programs has the potential to transform pediatric pain management. This merger of evidence‐based pain management strategies and digital technology positions pediatric mHealth to have a profound impact by effectively augmenting standard of care and benefiting healthcare providers, parents, and especially children in need.

Best practices for virtual care to support youth with chronic pain and their families: a rapid systematic review to inform health care and policy during COVID-19 and beyond

“…Of the 16 articles meeting review inclusion criteria, 10 were scoping or systematic reviews or meta-analyses, 14 , 30 , 34 , 62 , 66 , 68 , 69 , 71 , 73 , 74 3 were commentaries or editorials or opinion articles, 27 , 28 , 38 2 were qualitative studies, 37 , 76 and one was a nonsystematic literature review. 44 Refer to Table 1 for a summary of data extracted from each article.…”

“… 44 Refer to Table 1 for a summary of data extracted from each article. Articles were from a variety of countries, including 4 articles each from Canada, 28 , 37 , 44 , 69 the United States, 34 , 38 , 66 , 68 and the United Kingdom 14 , 27 , 30 , 74 ; 2 articles from Australia 62 , 76 ; one from China 71 ; and one from New Zealand. 73 Most of these articles shared comparable health care contexts and focus on publicly funded health systems, although variety is noted.…”

“… 34 , 38 Multidisciplinary and multimodal pain treatments are not always available to pediatric patients, and therefore innovative virtual care solutions may be especially useful in this population. 38 However, virtual care remains underutilized, especially for real-time symptom assessment and psychological treatment. Many existing technologies or applications have not been widely disseminated or are unable to sustain prolonged engagement with users, which signals low uptake.…”

A pilot study of the preliminary efficacy of Pain Buddy: A novel intervention for the management of children's cancer‐related pain

“…2 Furthermore, children are in particular need of easily implementable interventions because the majority of pediatric pain management responsibility has shifted from medical settings to home environments. 3 Because mobile health (mHealth) applications have great potential to improve pediatric pain management, 4 our group developed Pain Buddy as an intervention designed to reduce pain during cancer treatment by facilitating patient-provider symptom communication, providing children training in cognitive and behavioral pain management strategies, and delivering these techniques in an effective and engaging manner. 5 Users of the present version of Pain Buddy are asked to report on their daily pain and symptoms via a computer tablet and that information is provided in real time to clinicians in order to promptly address any symptoms that warrant intervention.…”

Music-Enhanced Analgesia and Antiseizure Activities in Animal Models of Pain and Epilepsy: Toward Preclinical Studies Supporting Development of Digital Therapeutics and Their Combinations With Pharmaceutical Drugs

“…Several mobile apps and video games (Table S1) received approval, or clearance, from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) using software as a medical device (SaMD) regulatory mechanism (7,8). There are also increased interests in developing mobile apps for people living with chronic pain (9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16) and epilepsy (6,(17)(18)(19).…”