An eHealth solution for posttraumatic stress and pain screening integrated in pediatric injury care

DESCRIPTION provided by applicant Each year million US children are injured affecting the child his her family and society which often bears the cost Among school age children age to injuries lead to million emergency department ED visits and hospital admissions annually resulting in $ billion in medical costs and $ billion more in work loss costs Approximately in injured children will develop posttraumatic stress symptoms PTSS that persist for months and interfere with recovery Although PTSS has been shown to be associated with health and functional outcomes following injury few health systems routinely address PTSS in injured pediatric patients This project proposes to address this critical systemic problem by focusing on the gap between current approaches for identifying PTSS and the needs of injured children their families health care providers and health systems We propose an integrated screening and intervention system that takes advantage of advances in e Health and developmentally appropriate engagement strategies as well as a shifting economic landscape that provides health systems with incentives for optimizing short and long term patient outcomes and for meaningful use of health information technology We will develop a prototype system and evaluate its usability feasibility and utility among key user groups Simultaneously we will evaluate the technical feasibility of implementation and delineate an initial commercialization plan grounded in extensive learning from key stakeholders PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE Each year million US children are injured approximately in of them will develop posttraumatic stress symptoms PTSS that persist for months and interfere with recovery There is currently no practical validated means to screen children for PTSS in a timely fashion and connect screening results to follow up care The proposed project will extend and enhance an ongoing collaborative project between Radiant and Childrenandapos s Hospital of Philadelphia CHOP to develop a robust integrated online pediatric PTSS screening and intervention program