Electronic pain assessment in clinical practice

Outpatient Pain Medication Use: An Electronic Daily Diary Study in Metastatic Breast Cancer

CONTEXT

Understanding cancer patients' everyday pain experiences and their concomitant use of pain medication may help identify ways to improve pain management among outpatients.

OBJECTIVES

This study examined the between-person and within-person associations between pain intensity and analgesic use in metastatic breast cancer patients.

METHODS

Fifty-three women who were initiating treatment for metastatic breast cancer completed electronic diary assessments six times per day for 14 days.

RESULTS

The likelihood of taking medication was found to depend on patients' average pain levels and on whether their pain was better or worse than usual at the time. Patients who typically experienced moderate-to-high pain were more likely to be prescribed and to take analgesics than were patients who typically experienced low pain. However, these patients tended not to vary their medication use based on within-person fluctuations in pain. In contrast, patients who typically experienced low pain tended to increase their medication use at times when their pain was higher than usual but were less likely to use medication than were patients who typically experienced higher levels of pain.

CONCLUSION

Our findings provide some evidence that patients with advanced cancer tend to use their pain medications appropriately. Patients with lower pain appear to be taking medications in response to increases in pain, whereas patients whose pain is typically more intense may be relying on other cues to prompt them to take analgesic medication. Clinicians may need to be sensitive to individual differences in the factors associated with pain medication use in daily life.

Impact of an Electronic Pain and Opioid Risk Assessment Program: Are There Improvements in Patient Encounters and Clinic Notes?

OBJECTIVE

A comprehensive electronic self-report assessment, called PainCAS^® (Clinical Assessment System), was developed and implemented in three clinics. PainCAS captures demographic information, pain assessment, quality-of-life variables, and contains validated, electronic versions of screeners for risk of aberrant opioid-related behaviors (the SOAPP and COMM). This investigation sought to determine the impact of PainCAS on documentation of pain and opioid risk evaluations. Exploratory hypotheses examined changes in the content of the patient-provider interaction and any impact on outcome.

METHODS

In study 1, chart reviews were conducted between pain patients who completed the electronic program (N = 89) and controls who represented standard of care (N = 120). In study 2, two groups of chronic pain patients (treatment-as-usual Control condition = 75, PainCAS Experimental condition = 72) were interviewed after completing their index clinic visit and completed mailed questionnaires 3 months later.

RESULTS

Results revealed significantly more key, pain-relevant chart elements documented in charts of patients who completed the PainCAS than those using a traditional paper questionnaire (Study 1; <0.001). In Study 2, the Experimental group reported more discussion about legal issues, substance use history, and medication safety compared with the Control group (p < 0.05). Satisfaction questionnaire responses supported provider and patient perceived benefit from using PainCAS. However, as expected, no differences were found between conditions on outcome measures of pain, mood, and function.

CONCLUSIONS

Results indicate that use of the PainCAS electronic pain assessment improves documentation of chart elements in clinic notes and is associated with increased discussion of key, pain-relevant topics during the clinical visit.

Electronic opioid risk assessment program for chronic pain patients: barriers and benefits of implementation

OBJECTIVES

A preliminary electronic pain assessment program known as Pain Assessment Interview Network, Clinical Advisory System (painCAS), was implemented in 2 pain centers over the course of 10 months to understand the tool's impact on opioid risk assessment documentation and clinical workflow. The program contains validated electronic versions of screeners for opioid misuse risk (SOAPP-R and Current Opioid Misuse Measure).

METHODS

Charts of patients with an initial and 2 follow-up visits were randomly selected for review of presence of opioid risk assessments before and after implementation of the electronic assessment program. Clinical and administrative staff members were interviewed to gain their perceptions of the impact of the program.

RESULTS

Significant increases were observed in the documentation of opioid risk assessments between the baseline patient chart reviews before implementation of the program (n = 66) and the postintervention patient chart reviews after the implementation of the program (n = 39), for both initial and follow-up clinic visits (P < 0.001). Specific benefits of the program identified by 7 clinicians and 8 administrators included ease of use, reduced paperwork, completion of the assessment before the clinic visit, and incorporation of information directly into an electronic medical record (EMR). Perceived barriers to implementation included poor patient compliance, changes in administration workflow, and difficulties associated with patients with no email addresses, and limited computer skills.

CONCLUSIONS

Implementation of an opioid risk electronic pain assessment program significantly increased the likelihood that a risk assessment would be included in the medical record, which has implications for improvement of quality of care.

Benefits of a physician-facing tablet presentation of patient symptom data: comparing paper and electronic formats

BACKGROUND

Providing patient information to physicians in usable form is of high importance. Electronic presentation of patient data may have benefits in efficiency and error rate reduction for these physician facing interfaces. Using a cancer symptom measurement tool (the MD Anderson Symptom Inventory (MDASI)) we assessed the usability of patient data in its raw paper form and compared that to presentation on two electronic presentation formats of different sizes.

METHODS

In two separate experiments, undergraduates completed two identical six-part questionnaires on two twenty-patient MDASI data sets. In Experiment 1, participants completed one questionnaire using a paper packet and the other questionnaire using an in-house designed iPad application. In Experiment 2, MDASI data was evaluated using an iPad and iPod Touch. Participants assessed the usability of the devices directly after use. In a third experiment, medical professionals evaluated the paper and iPad interfaces in order to validate the findings from Experiment 1.

RESULTS

Participants were faster and more accurate answering questions about patients when using the iPad. The results from the medical professionals were similar. No appreciable accuracy, task time, or usability differences were observed between the iPad and iPod Touch.

CONCLUSIONS

Overall, the use of our tablet interface increased the accuracy and speed that users could extract pertinent information from a multiple patient MDASI data set compared to paper. Reducing the size of the interface did not negatively affect accuracy, speed, or usability. Generalization of the results to other physician facing interfaces is discussed.

Integrating pain management in clinical practice

There is much evidence to suggest that psychological and social issues are predictive of pain severity, emotional distress, work disability, and response to medical treatments among persons with chronic pain. Psychologists can play an important role in the identification of psychological and social dysfunction and in matching personal characteristics to effective interventions as part of a multidisciplinary approach to pain management, leading to a greater likelihood of treatment success. The assessment of different domains using semi-structured clinical interviews and standardized self-report measures permits identification of somatosensory, emotional, cognitive, behavioral and social issues in order to facilitate treatment planning. In this paper, we briefly describe measures to assess constructs related to pain and intervention strategies for the behavioral treatment of chronic pain and discuss related psychiatric and substance abuse issues. Finally, we offer a future look at the role of integrating pain management in clinical practice in the psychological assessment and treatment for persons with chronic pain.

Associations between daily chronic pain intensity, daily anger expression, and trait anger expressiveness: an ecological momentary assessment study

Links between elevated trait anger expressiveness (anger-out) and greater chronic pain intensity are well documented, but pain-related effects of expressive behaviors actually used to regulate anger when it is experienced have been little explored. This study used ecological momentary assessment methods to explore prospective associations between daily behavioral anger expression and daily chronic pain intensity. Forty-eight chronic low back pain (LBP) patients and 36 healthy controls completed electronic diary ratings of momentary pain and behavioral anger expression in response to random prompts 4 times daily for 7 days. Across groups, greater trait anger-out was associated with greater daily behavioral anger expression (P<0.001). LBP participants showed higher levels of daily anger expression than controls (P<0.001). Generalized estimating equation analyses in the LBP group revealed a lagged main effect of greater behavioral anger expression on increased chronic pain intensity in the subsequent assessment period (P<0.05). Examination of a trait×situation model for anger-out revealed prospective associations between elevated chronic pain intensity and later increases in behavioral anger expression that were restricted largely to individuals low in trait anger-out (P<0.001). Trait×situation interactions for trait anger suppression (anger-in) indicated similar influences of pain intensity on subsequent behavioral anger expression occurring among low anger-in persons (P<0.001). Overlap with trait and state negative affect did not account for study findings. This study for the first time documents lagged within-day influences of behavioral anger expression on subsequent chronic pain intensity. Trait anger regulation style may moderate associations between behavioral anger expression and chronic pain intensity.