Smartphone & Tablet Application for recording Medicines and Pain
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Assessing short-term pain trajectories to support prognosis and monitoring of response to treatment in primary care: Validity and clinical utility of a Smartphone App
IRAS ID
156728
Contact name
Danielle van der Windt
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Keele University
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
When patients are receiving treatment from their GP, information on daily changes in pain and other symptoms (symptom trajectories) can be very important, for example to monitor the severity of symptoms in patients with chronic conditions; obtain information regarding the possible cause of symptoms; estimate the future course of a condition; or assess early response to treatment. However, early changes in pain and other symptoms are rarely assessed in clinical practice or research, where follow-up of patients is often planned several weeks or months after the consultation or start of treatment. If symptom trajectories are assessed, this is often carried out using paper diaries, which are cumbersome, often poorly completed, and outdated by the time it reaches the practitioner. In collaboration with our Research User Group (RUG) we have recently completed the design of a Smartphone Application (‘Pain Recorder’) which enables daily recordings of pain, is quick and easy to use, and produces summary graphs of symptom trajectories. This study aims to test the acceptability, validity and clinical utility of this application in the management of patients consulting with musculoskeletal pain in primary care.
REC name
West Midlands - Coventry & Warwickshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/WM/1214
Date of REC Opinion
3 Nov 2014
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion