Manage My Pain: A Patient-Driven Mobile Platform to Prevent and Manage Chronic Postsurgical Pain

Introduction

Cindy was diagnosed with severe fibromyalgia in 1996 after a shoulder injury -- in addition, she was suffering from pain due to severe whiplash, spinal stenosis, arthritis, bone spurs, degenerative disc disease, and multiple sclerosis. An orthopedic surgeon informed her she would require surgery on her back and neck; however, she was unable to afford health insurance, and surgery was not an option. The prospect of living with severe pain for the rest of her life, and not being able to work to support herself financially, left her feeling depressed and made it difficult to hope for recovery and a life without pain (ManagingLife, 2012).

In 2011, a doctor suggested that Cindy keep a “health journal” to track her symptoms and manage her painful conditions. The health journal was useful but time-consuming and paperwork-heavy. She looked for a smartphone application that would be more effective and convenient and discovered the app, Manage My Pain. The app enabled her to track important information to manage her pain on a daily basis such as symptoms, pain triggers, and treatments for her pain – all with little hassle and in just a few minutes. Tracking and visualizing her pain through the app helped her learn more about her chronic pain. Moreover, she was able to share her data with her doctors. Manage My Pain helped Cindy create a patient-provider virtual community, which ultimately enhanced her ability to effectively manage her chronic pain (ManagingLife, 2012).

Cindy’s struggle with chronic pain resembles that of hundreds of millions of chronic pain sufferers around the world. Unable to afford or access pain management services, many people are left to suffer alone, desperate, and impaired. The implementation of a virtual community within the pain management domain presents the dual opportunities of reducing barriers to chronic pain management for people living in pain, and optimizing the delivery of effective treatment by pain clinicians. This chapter chronicles the integration of the award-winning digital pain management platform, Manage My Pain, into an innovative hospital-based pain service to create a patient-provider virtual community with the aim of preventing and managing chronic pain after surgery.