Evaluation of automated pain logging
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Evaluation of automated pain logging devices compared with paper pain diaries
IRAS ID
229503
Contact name
Blaine Price
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The Open University
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 4 months, 18 days
Research summary
Given that there is no medical test to directly measure pain, clinicians mainly rely on patient self-reports either self-logged in a paper diary using a Visual Analogue Scale or the 11 point Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) or reported to nursing staff orally as an NRS value and logged in a chart . Diaries present accuracy and completeness problems and patients forget to make entries or back-fill the diary once they remember. Nurse logged entries may also be incomplete as staffing levels may not allow patients to be queried at regular intervals or the patient may be asleep when the nurse visits. Both methods lack the ability to see trends in real time and take pre-emptive action if pain levels are rising. To address these problems we have designed and built a simple battery powered handheld device, called a Painpad, that prompts patients at regular intervals to enter their pain level then wirelessly transmits it to a database for both historical analysis and to show live trend data to clinicians.
REC name
London - Brighton & Sussex Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/LO/1404
Date of REC Opinion
1 Sep 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion