Manage My Pain app on CTV News

Awareness of the impact that chronic pain is growing in Ontario is growing, partly due to the opioid crisis. There is a significant opportunity to leverage innovative technologies to improve how pain is managed across the Province. Colleagues at the University Health Network, have collaborated with a Toronto-based digital health company, ManagingLife, to demonstrate how an innovative patient-centric mobile app solution can improve patient outcomes.

The Mange My Painhas now been used by over 30,000 people worldwide, and is intended to improve patient self-management, improve patient-doctor communication, outcome measurement, and remote monitoring. The Ministry of Health and Long Term Care (MOHLTC) provided funding for the project through its Health Technology Fund. The goal of the project was to validate the impact of the app at 4 different clinical settings including 2 downtown academic hospitals (TGH and TWH) a community hospital (Rouge Valley Hyperbaric Medical Centre) and a rural site (Iroquois Falls Family Health Team) that serves a large rural and indigenous community in Ontario.

Dr. Atul Prabhu (Principal Applicant) and Drs. Anuj Bhatia and Hance Clarke (Collaborators) are bringing together multiple complementary organizations to deploy technology to enable better care at home. The healthcare economic analysis is being done by CLEAR (Center for Excellence in Economic Analysis Research at St Michaels Hospital), and the qualitative healthcare research is being conducted by AHRC (Applied Health Research Centre at St Michaels Hospital). The program is sponsored by the Ontraio Ministry of Health OCE-Health Techonologies Fund.

See more in the recent interview to Dr. Bhatia aired on CTV News. He discussed how innovative technology can benefit patients after surgery.