Development and Testing of an Intelligent Pain Management System (IPMS) on Mobile Phones Through a Randomized Trial Among Chinese Cancer Patients: A New Approach in Cancer Pain Management

BACKGROUND: Cancer has become increasingly prevalent in China over the past few decades. Among the factors that determine the quality of life of cancer patients, pain has commonly been recognized as a most critical one; it could also lead to the ineffective treatment of the cancer. Driven by the need for better pain management for cancer patients, our research team developed a mobile-based Intelligent Pain Management System (IPMS). OBJECTIVE: Our objective was to design, develop, and test the IPMS to facilitate real-time pain recording and timely intervention among cancer patients with pain. The system’s usability, feasibility, compliance, and satisfaction were also assessed. METHODS: A sample of 46 patients with cancer pain symptoms were recruited at the Oncology Center of Xinhua Hospital affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Chongming Branch (hereinafter referred to as “the Oncology Center”). In a pretest, participants completed a pain management knowledge questionnaire and were evaluated using the baseline cancer pain assessment and Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS) evaluation. The participants were then randomly assigned into two groups (the trial group and the control group). After a 14-day trial period, another round of cancer pain assessment, KPS evaluation and pain management knowledge assessment were repeated. In the trial group, the data were fully automatically collected by the IPMS. In the control group, the data were collected using conventional methods, such as phone interviews or door-to-door visits by physicians. The participants were also asked to complete a satisfaction questionnaire on the use of the IPMS. RESULTS: All participants successfully completed the trial. First, the feasibility of IPMS by observing the number of daily pain assessments recorded among patients was assessed. Second, the users’ satisfaction, effectiveness of pain management, and changes in the quality of their lives were evaluated. All the participants gave high satisfaction score after they used IMPS. Both groups reported similar pain scores and KPS scores at the baseline. At the end of the trial, the mean pain score of the trial group was significantly lower than of the control group (P<.001). The ending KPS score of the trial group was significantly higher than of the control group (P<.001). The improvement of pain management knowledge score in the trial group was more pronounced than that in the control group (P<.001). CONCLUSIONS: This study provided preliminary data to support the potentials of using IPMS in cancer pain communication between patients and doctors and to provide real-time supportive intervention on a convenient basis at a low cost. Overall, the IPMS can serve as a reliable and effective approach to control cancer pain and improve quality of life for patients with cancer pain. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinicaltrials.gov NCT02765269; http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02765269 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6rnwsgDgv)