Post-Operative Pain App (P.O.P.)

Dr. Michael Leu submitted an idea for a pain management app to the 2016 Microsoft Hack-for Good. This idea was selected and over the course of one week a team of Microsoft employees coded a very rough prototype. SCH e-Health team committed to internal development of app. Tonsil and adenoidectomy (T&A) surgeries are the 2nd largest volume procedure in the Otolaryngology department. Team would like to provide families with a digital tool that provides pain medication tracking and reminders as well as education regarding post-operative care. The pilot will be conducted with patients having T&A procedures at Bellevue Surgery Center (higher volume, throughput process, ease of implementation, engagement with parents, more uniform in complexity).

Pilot Goals

• Understand the typical post-op pain pattern.
• Quantify how much pain medication is needed.
• To keep patients safe from overuse of opioids via pain management education and tracking (long term goal).
• Educate families on what to expect as normal side-effects after surgery.

Conclusions

• Parents watched videos & read content early in post-op period.
• Opioid use and pain curve not assessable:
1. Limited knowledge collected because uncontrolled use of app.
2. No single individual matched the expected pain curve.
• Key requests from parents include single sign on, push notifications with alarm for medication administration.