Back Pain Tracker Smartphone App for Longitudinal Assessment of Patient Reported Outcomes

Abstract We propose to develop back-end interface and interoperability features for “Back Pain Tracker”, a smart-phone app based on the NIH Research Standards for Chronic Back Pain and PROMIS Computer Adaptive Tests. The proposed work will prepare this innovation for commercialization. Considerations for commercialization strategy are customizations or licensing partnerships with clinical practices, EMR companies, integrated health systems, or national societies that measure and compare patient outcomes. Major substitutable products that already exists are GeoPain (MoxyTech, Inc.), My Pain Diary andamp; Symptom Tracker (DamoLab, LLC), PainScale (Boston Scientific, Inc.), Year in Pixels (Valley Software), Flaredown (Flaredown), CatchMyPain (Sanovation AG.), Manage My Pain (ManagingLife, Inc.), WebMD Mobile Pain Coach (WebMD LLC), and iBeatPain for Teens (Take The Wind, Lda.). The closest competitor to the companyandapos;s technology is My Pain Diary andamp; Symptom Tracker by DamoLab LLC. The product can track the location and intensity of the patientandapos;s pain, update a medication log, note the weather, look back at all past entries, and graph trends over time. Our value proposition is best-in-class PROs (Patient Reported Outcomes) assessment that complies with the highest standards established by the NIH for clinical research on cLBP. Our product, Back Pain Tracker, is designed to allow patients to directly understand their pain and function scores compared to others of similar age and sex. This intellectual property is protected by two patents: U.S. Patent Application entitled: SYSTEM AND METHODS FOR INTERACTIVE HEALTH CARE, Application No. 15/470,819, Filing Date 3/27/17; and U.S Patent Application entitled: INTERACTIVE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM FOR MANAGING BACK OR NECK PAIN, File No. 408/0002R, Filing Date 9/5/2018. By using the app the PROs trends reflect the observations through a time period, not restricted by dependence on the most recent memory. The app has utility at all treatment phases: diagnosis, pre-surgical physical therapy (PT), pharmacological therapy (pharma), surgical preparation, and post-surgical PT, pharma and follow-up evaluation. Finally, the app has applications in personalized medicine, recording and analysis of patient centered outcomes relying on an interaction between healthcare provider and patient on the definitions of treatment goals; a common data-based foundation for shared decision making, particularly about surgery; and a basic design that can be applied to other orthopedic conditions. We have expertise in the area of patient reported outcomes monitoring for pain and expertise in the clinical needs and requirements for treatment of pain including surgical procedures. Key problems identified with current technologies for tracking and reporting patient outcomes for pain include collection of patient treatment data in surveys and related to outcomes, issues with reliability and reproducibility, and all major EMR systems used in the USA do not support self-reported pain management data from patients. Goals of this project are (1) to develop a dashboard for clinics to manage patients and analyze groups, (2) develop the ability for clinics to customize app functions to create a personalized experience, and (3) integrate the application with an EMR system.Narrative We propose to develop a back-end interface that allows clinicians to customize a smart-phone app based on the NIH Research Standards for Chronic Back Pain and PROMIS Computer Adaptive Tests. Then integrate the technology into their electronic medical record systems.