[painApp-mobile pain monitoring in the home care setting]

The use of a scientifically developed App for pain management in the home care setting is not yet established in Germany. The documentation of pain-specific data by the patients and the transfer into a web portal to be examined by the attending physician can help close the existing communication gap in pain management between consultations.

The aim of the study was to develop a mobile health (mHealth) solution for optimizing pain management in the home care setting. The research questions focus on design and technical issues concerning layout and navigation of the painApp as well as user-relevant questions concerning pain management, such as pain at rest and pain during movement, taking pain medication and patient satisfaction with their pain situation.

Within a 12-month period, the user-centered development and practice-based testing of the application painApp involved patients aged ≥ 65 years. Within a formative evaluation, a total of four data collections and a final survey took place. During the same period, a web portal was developed and tested the documentation of the patient pain-specific data from the painApp with the participation of general practitioners.

The development of the painApp as a prototype was realized in the study with high acceptability by the patients. The painApp is able to establish digital communication with the general practitioner without any technical problems and allows the physician access to patient data in real time.