Characterizing Breakthrough Cancer Pain Using Ecological Momentary Assessment with a Smartphone App: Feasibility and Clinical Findings

Assessing the Needs of Patients with Cancer and Healthcare Professionals for a Digital Pain Management System: A Qualitative Study

Objective

To understand the willingness of patients and healthcare workers to use, as well as their needs for, an intelligent cancer pain management platform. The findings will serve as a reference for developing cancer pain management tools in China.

Methods

A Purposive sampling was used to conduct semi-structured interviews from March to June 2024 with patients experiencing chronic cancer pain, their family members, and healthcare workers in the oncology departments of two tertiary grade A hospitals in Shanghai, China. Data were analyzed using the Colaizzi's seven-step analysis.

Results

The needs of patients and healthcare workers for a cancer pain management app were categorized into five themes, namely, recording of pain status, medication reminders, health education, social support, and artificial intelligence assistance.

Conclusion

Future development of an advanced cancer pain management platform must address the multiple challenges currently faced in out-of-hospital cancer pain management, while also considering the needs and preferences of patients and healthcare workers. The platform should integrate features such as visualization of patients' pain trends, online medical education, peer support, real-time counseling, artificial intelligence assistance, and guidance for at-home self-management and supervision.

The potential of experience sampling methods in palliative care

BACKGROUND

Experience sampling methods typically involve multiple self-report assessments per day over consecutive days. Unlike traditional patient-reported outcome measures or interviews, such methods offer the possibility to capture the temporal fluctuations of experiences in daily environments, making them valuable for studying the daily lives of people with advanced illness. Yet, their use in palliative care research is limited.

AIMS

To introduce experience sampling methods to the field of palliative care as a valuable tool for studying the everyday experiences of people with advanced illness, and to present the findings of an experience sampling methods pilot study with people with advanced breast or advanced lung cancer.

EVIDENCE USED TO SUPPORT THE INFORMATION PRESENTED

We draw on published health research using experience sampling methods. We present a newly developed experience sampling methods questionnaire (ESM-AC) and report pilot study findings on the feasibility and acceptability of experience sampling methods among people with advanced breast or lung cancer.

KEY LEARNING POINTS

Experience sampling methods hold potential to uncover the dynamics of everyday experiences of people with advanced illness. The methods offer considerable flexibility and options to answer a variety of research questions, but consideration is required regarding sampling protocols and participant burden. We showed appropriate feasibility and acceptable participant burden of the methods among people with advanced breast or advanced lung cancer.

Acceptability, Effectiveness, and Roles of mHealth Applications in Supporting Cancer Pain Self-Management: Integrative Review

BACKGROUND

 Cancer pain remains highly prevalent and persistent throughout survivorship, and it is crucial to investigate the potential of leveraging the advanced features of mobile health (mHealth) apps to empower individuals to self-manage their pain.

OBJECTIVE

 This review aims to comprehensively understand the acceptability, users' experiences, and effectiveness of mHealth apps in supporting cancer pain self-management.

METHODS

 We conducted an integrative review following Souza and Whittemore and Knafl's 6 review processes. Literature was searched in PubMed, Scopus, CINAHL Plus with Full Text, PsycINFO, and Embase, from 2013 to 2023. Keywords including "cancer patients," "pain," "self-management," "mHealth applications," and relevant synonyms were used in the search. The Johns Hopkins research evidence appraisal tool was used to evaluate the quality of eligible studies. A narrative synthesis was conducted to analyze the extracted data.

RESULTS

 A total of 20 studies were included, with the overall quality rated as high (n=15) to good (n=5). Using mHealth apps to monitor and manage pain was acceptable for most patients with cancer. The internal consistency of the mHealth in measuring pain was 0.96. The reported daily assessment or engagement rate ranged from 61.9% to 76.8%. All mHealth apps were designed for multimodal interventions. Participants generally had positive experiences using pain apps, rating them as enjoyable and user-friendly. In addition, 6 studies reported significant improvements in health outcomes, including enhancement in pain remission (severity and intensity), medication adherence, and a reduced frequency of breakthrough pain. The most frequently highlighted roles of mHealth apps included pain monitoring, tracking, reminders, education facilitation, and support coordination.

CONCLUSIONS

 mHealth apps are effective and acceptable in supporting pain self-management. They offer a promising multi-model approach for patients to monitor, track, and manage their pain. These findings provide evidence-based insights for leveraging mHealth apps to support cancer pain self-management. More high-quality studies are needed to examine the effectiveness of digital technology-based interventions for cancer pain self-management and to identify the facilitators and barriers to their implementation in real-world practice.

The Effect of Everyday-Life Social Contact on Pain

Pain is a biopsychosocial phenomenon, resulting from the interplay between physiological and psychological processes and social factors. Given that humans constantly interact with others, the effect of social factors is particularly relevant. Documenting the significance of the social modulation of pain, an increasing number of studies have investigated the effect of social contact on subjective pain intensity and pain-related physiological changes. While evidence suggests that social contact can alleviate pain, contradictory findings indicate an increase in pain intensity and a deterioration of pain coping strategies. This evidence primarily stems from studies examining the effect of social contact on pain within highly controlled laboratory conditions. Moreover, pain assessments often rely on one-time subjective reports of average pain intensity across a predefined period. Ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) can circumvent these problems, as they can capture diverse aspects of behavior and experiences multiple times a day, in real time, with high resolution, and within naturalistic and ecologically valid settings. These multiple measures allow for the examination of fluctuations of pain symptoms throughout the day in relation to affective, cognitive, behavioral, and social factors. In this opinion paper, we review the current state and future relevance of EMA-based social pain research in daily life. Specifically, we examine whether everyday-life social support reduces or enhances pain. The first part of the paper provides a comprehensive overview of the use of EMA in pain research and summarizes the main findings. The review of the relatively limited number of existing EMA studies shows that the association between pain and social contact in everyday life depends on numerous factors, including pain syndromes, temporal dynamics, the nature of social interactions, and characteristics of the interaction partners. In line with laboratory research, there is evidence that everyday-life social contact can alleviate, but also intensify pain, depending on the type of social support. Everyday-life emotional support seems to reduce pain, while extensive solicitous support was found to have opposite effects. Moreover, positive short-term effects of social support can be overshadowed by other symptoms such as fatigue. Overall, gathering and integrating experiences from a patient's social environment can offer valuable insights. These insights can help interpret dynamics in pain intensity and accompanying symptoms such as depression or fatigue. We conclude that factors determining the reducing versus enhancing effects of social contact on pain need to be investigated more thoroughly. We advocate EMA as the assessment method of the future and highlight open questions that should be addressed in future EMA studies on pain and the potential of ecological momentary interventions for pain treatment.

Application of a WeChat Mini Program to provide pharmaceutical care for cancer pain patients: A randomized controlled trial

Objective

This study aimed to develop an individual WeChat Mini Program to provide pharmaceutical care to better manage cancer pain patients and to evaluate its feasibility and the differences in analgesic efficacy, medication adherence and safety versus conventional pharmacy interventions.

Methods

In this parallel randomized clinical trial, 42 cancer pain patients were equally allocated into the experimental group and the control group. The experimental group received individualized pharmaceutical care based on the "Yao Nin You Wo" WeChat Mini Program, while the control group received conventional care during the 4-week period. Main outcomes contained pain scores, medication adherence, incidences and relief rates of breakthrough pain, and incidences of adverse events. Relief rates of pain were also calculated according to pain scores.

Results

At the beginning of intervention, none of the pain scores and medication adherence showed relevant differences between the two groups (all P > .05). After intervention, the experimental group had significantly lower pain scores compared to the control group (P = .003). Breakthrough pain of both groups was alleviate; not only the incidence of breakthrough pain considerably was lower at 4 weeks than at baseline, but the relief rate of breakthrough in the experimental group was higher than that in the control group. Compared with the control group, the medication adherence rate of the experimental group was significantly improved (P = .02). Types of adverse events that happened in experimental and groups were similar, but the total incidence of adverse events in the experimental group was lower than that in the control group.

Conclusions

WeChat Mini Program is a useful and facilitative tool with the potential to improve cancer pain self-management ability in discharged patients. In addition, pharmacists could play a key role through the Mini Program to connect with patients successfully by providing personalized pharmaceutical services.

PaiNEd app. Assessing central sensitization in survivors of breast cancer: A reliability study

Introduction

Pain is a common adverse event in survivors of breast cancer (sBCs). As there is no gold standard to assess pain experience predominantly related to central sensitization (CS) symptoms, we designed the PaiNEd app, which includes an algorithm to report whether patients are under predominant CS pain mechanisms.

Objective

We aimed to assess the reliability of the PaiNEd app to estimate whether sBC pain experience is predominantly related to CS symptoms.

Methods

An observational, descriptive reliability design was employed to assess the inter- and intrarater reliability of the PaiNEd app. This app includes an algorithm that considers the number of painful body parts and some questionnaires related to pain, such as the Numeric Pain-Rating Scale, the Brief Pain Inventory, the Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia, the Pain Catastrophizing Scale, and the Central Sensitization Inventory (CSI).

Results

A total of 21 sBCs with persistent pain were recruited. We observe a general trend of close agreement between the paper-based and app-based formats (ICCs ranged between 0.802 and 0.972; Cronbach's alpha ranged between 0.797 and 0.971). Test-retest reliabilities were moderate to excellent (ICCs ranged between 0.510 and 0.941; Cronbach's alpha ranged between 0.499 and 0.938). The agreement between the categorization of the CS algorithm and the CSI (cut-off point ≥ 40 for CS symptoms) was 95.24%.

Conclusion

The PaiNEd app emerges as a robust tool for evaluating pain experience predominantly related to CS and pain-related symptoms in sBCs. Its demonstrated reliability not only bolsters its utility but also signifies its potential as a valuable asset for healthcare professionals engaged in pain education programs.

Challenges and Opportunities in Designing and Deploying Remote Health Monitoring Technology for Older Adults With Cancer

Remote health monitoring (RHM) technologies (eg, wearables, smart phones, embedded sensors, and telehealth platforms) offer significant opportunities to improve health and wellness for older adults facing serious illness. This article highlights key challenges and opportunities for designing and deploying RHM systems in the context of caring for older adults with cancer, with an emphasis on the key role nurses can play in this work. Focal topics include user-centered design, interdisciplinary collaboration, addressing health inequities and disparities, privacy and data security, participant recruitment and burden, personalized and tailored care, rapid technological change, family caregiver perspectives, and naturalistic data collection. It is critical for nurses to be aware of both challenges and opportunities within each of these areas in order to develop RHM systems that are optimally beneficial for patients, family caregivers, clinicians, and organizations. By leveraging their unique knowledge of the illness experience from the patient, family, and health care provider perspective, nurses can make essential clinical and scientific contributions to advance the field of RHM.

Deploying the Behavioral and Environmental Sensing and Intervention for Cancer Smart Health System to Support Patients and Family Caregivers in Managing Pain: Feasibility and Acceptability Study

BACKGROUND

Distressing cancer pain remains a serious symptom management issue for patients and family caregivers, particularly within home settings. Technology can support home-based cancer symptom management but must consider the experience of patients and family caregivers, as well as the broader environmental context.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to test the feasibility and acceptability of a smart health sensing system-Behavioral and Environmental Sensing and Intervention for Cancer (BESI-C)-that was designed to support the monitoring and management of cancer pain in the home setting.

METHODS

Dyads of patients with cancer and their primary family caregivers were recruited from an outpatient palliative care clinic at an academic medical center. BESI-C was deployed in each dyad home for approximately 2 weeks. Data were collected via environmental sensors to assess the home context (eg, light and temperature); Bluetooth beacons to help localize dyad positions; and smart watches worn by both patients and caregivers, equipped with heart rate monitors, accelerometers, and a custom app to deliver ecological momentary assessments (EMAs). EMAs enabled dyads to record and characterize pain events from both their own and their partners' perspectives. Sensor data streams were integrated to describe and explore the context of cancer pain events. Feasibility was assessed both technically and procedurally. Acceptability was assessed using postdeployment surveys and structured interviews with participants.

RESULTS

Overall, 5 deployments (n=10 participants; 5 patient and family caregiver dyads) were completed, and 283 unique pain events were recorded. Using our "BESI-C Performance Scoring Instrument," the overall technical feasibility score for deployments was 86.4 out of 100. Procedural feasibility challenges included the rurality of dyads, smart watch battery life and EMA reliability, and the length of time required for deployment installation. Postdeployment acceptability Likert surveys (1=strongly disagree; 5=strongly agree) found that dyads disagreed that BESI-C was a burden (1.7 out of 5) or compromised their privacy (1.9 out of 5) and agreed that the system collected helpful information to better manage cancer pain (4.6 out of 5). Participants also expressed an interest in seeing their own individual data (4.4 out of 5) and strongly agreed that it is important that data collected by BESI-C are shared with their respective partners (4.8 out of 5) and health care providers (4.8 out of 5). Qualitative feedback from participants suggested that BESI-C positively improved patient-caregiver communication regarding pain management. Importantly, we demonstrated proof of concept that seriously ill patients with cancer and their caregivers will mark pain events in real time using a smart watch.

CONCLUSIONS

It is feasible to deploy BESI-C, and dyads find the system acceptable. By leveraging human-centered design and the integration of heterogenous environmental, physiological, and behavioral data, the BESI-C system offers an innovative approach to monitor cancer pain, mitigate the escalation of pain and distress, and improve symptom management self-efficacy.

INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID)

RR2-10.2196/16178.

Content features and its implementation in novel app-based psycho-oncological interventions for cancer survivors: a narrative review

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

The interest in and availability of app-based psycho-oncological interventions for cancer survivors has grown rapidly. In this narrative review, we therefore aim to provide an overview of the psychological content features included in psycho-oncological apps and how the content is implemented in the apps.

RECENT FINDINGS

A total of 19 studies (six randomized controlled trials, six studies with prepost design, five study protocols and two app developments), all published in the last 18 months (July 2020 to December 2021), were analyzed in terms of the described app-based interventions and their psycho-oncological content. Apps for cancer survivors are conducted for a variety of different diagnoses and often target a specific patient population, for example patients with a specific therapy. The most frequent content features are psychoeducation, self-monitoring of symptoms, and some sort of exercise or relaxation program. Depending on the app's purpose, some offer specific content, such as decision aids, medication schedules or modules to improve coping strategies. Most apps combine informative and interactive elements.

SUMMARY

Psycho-oncological apps for cancer survivors target many relevant psychological problem areas and aim to improve patient empowerment. Available mHealth interventions can therefore be seen as a good complement for cancer care and also offer the possibility to improve patient involvement.

Daily angina documentation versus subsequent recall: development of a symptom smartphone app

Aims

The traditional approach to documenting angina outcomes in clinical trials is to ask the patient to recall their symptoms at the end of a month. With the ubiquitous availability of smartphones and tablets, daily contemporaneous documentation might be possible.

Methods and results

The ORBITA-2 symptom smartphone app was developed with a user-centred iterative design and testing cycle involving a focus group of previous ORBITA participants. The feasibility and acceptability were assessed in an internal pilot of participants in the ongoing ORBITA-2 trial. Seven days of app entries by ORBITA-2 participants were compared with subsequent participant recall at the end of the 7-day period. The design focus group tested a prototype app. They reported that the final version captured their symptoms and was easy to use. In the completion assessment group, 141 of 142 (99%) completed the app in full and 47 of 141 (33%) without reminders. In the recall assessment group, 29 of 29 (100%) participants said they could recall the previous day's symptoms, and 82% of them recalled correctly. For 2 days previously, 88% said they could recall and of those, 87% recalled correctly. The proportion saying they could recall their symptoms fell progressively thereafter: 89, 67, 61, 50%, and at 7 days, 55% (P < 0.001 for trend). The proportion of recalling correctly also fell progressively to 55% at 7 days (P = 0.04 for trend).

Conclusion

Episode counts of angina are difficult to recall after a few days. For trials such as ORBITA-2 focusing on angina, daily symptom collection via a smartphone app will increase the validity of the results.

Multidimensional Statistical Technique for Interpreting the Spontaneous Breakthrough Cancer Pain Phenomenon. A Secondary Analysis from the IOPS-MS Study

Breakthrough cancer pain (BTcP) is a temporary exacerbation of pain that "breaks through" a phase of adequate pain control by an opioid-based therapy. The non-predictable BTcP (NP-BTcP) is a subtype of BTcP that occurs in the absence of any specific activity. Since NP-BTcP has an important clinical impact, this analysis is aimed at characterizing the NP-BTcP phenomenon through a multidimensional statistical technique. This is a secondary analysis based on the Italian Oncologic Pain multiSetting-Multicentric Survey (IOPS-MS). A correlation analysis was performed to characterize the NP-BTcP profile about its intensity, number of episodes per day, and type. The multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) determined the identification of four groups (phenotypes). A univariate analysis was performed to assess differences between the four phenotypes and selected covariates. The four phenotypes represent the hierarchical classification according to the status of NP-BTcP: from the best (phenotype 1) to the worst (phenotype 4). The univariate analysis found a significant association between the onset time >10 min in the phenotype 1 (37.3%)' vs. the onset > 10 min in phenotype 4 (25.8%) (p < 0.001). Phenotype 1 was characterized by the gastrointestinal type of cancer (26.4%) with respect to phenotype 4, where the most frequent cancer affected the lung (28.8%) (p < 0.001). Phenotype 4 was mainly managed with rapid-onset opioids, while in phenotype 1, many patients were treated with oral, subcutaneous, or intravenous morphine (56.4% and 44.4%, respectively; p = 0.008). The ability to characterize NP-BTcP can offer enormous benefits for the management of this serious aspect of cancer pain. Although requiring validation, this strategy can provide many indications for identifying the diagnostic and therapeutic gaps in NP-BTcP management.

mHealth for the Monitoring of Brace Compliance and Wellbeing in Adolescents with Idiopathic Scoliosis: Study Protocol for a Feasibility Study

Attempts to optimize monitoring of brace adherence prescribed to adolescents with idiopathic scoliosis (IS) have generally relied on sensors. Sensors, however, are intrusive and do not allow the assessment of psychological and physical consequences of brace use that might underlie poor adherence. Mobile applications have emerged as alternatives to monitor brace compliance. However, the feasibility and utility of these app-based systems to assess key psychological and physical domains associated with non-adherence remain unexplored. This feasibility study aims to test the usability, acceptability, and clinical utility of an app-based system that monitors brace use and related psychological and physical factors. Forty adolescents with IS daily respond to the app for 90 days. The patient responses may generate clinical alarms (e.g., brace non-adherence, discomfort, or distress) that will be sent daily to the medical team. Primary outcomes will be app usability, acceptability, and response rates. Secondary outcomes will include brace adherence, the number of side effects reported, number and type of clinical alarms, stress, quality of life, perceived health status, and mood. If accepted by patients and clinicians, apps may allow rapid detection and response to undesired events in adolescents undergoing brace treatment.