Smartphones are quickly becoming an integral part of everyday living. Their ease of use, accessibility and functionality make them a great tool for patients wanting to track their health conditions. Pain tracking apps can be especially helpful for patients suffering with pain management issues. Here's a quick overview of some of the best pain management Apps on the market today that could support your patients quest for better health.
My Pain Diary: Chronic Pain & Symptom Tracker (Damon Lynn)
This helpful pain management App was reportedly created by a chronic pain patient to address the many issues facing chronic pain sufferers. It is a customizable App that includes weather reporting, a medication tracker, pain diary and a symptom tracker that captures both physical and psychological symptomology. This pain management App also allows patients the ability to produce PDF reports and graphs to take to Physician visits for review. This App is $4.99 to download.
Pain Scale-Pain Diary and Coach (Boston Scientific)
According to its developers, this pain tracking App is the product of a collaboration between Physicians and chronic pain patients looking to centralize patient information. This comprehensive and customizable pain management app includes hundreds of searchable articles and information from trusted medical sources on a variety of subjects. Features include: Health and exercise tips, information on treatment programs, Pain diary and reports, and Apple Healthkit integration. This App is free to download.
Mindfulness Daily (Inward Inc.)
Mindfulness practice has been found to be an effective pain management tool. This pain tracking App provides a simple, interactive way to get patents involved in Mindfulness practice. Features include: Use reminders, both guided and self-guided practice resources, daily lessons and Apple Health integration. It is free to download with available in app purchases.
My Opioid Manager (University Health Network)
The creators of My Opioid Manager created this App to help opioid pain management patients better understand their treatments and conditions. Users are given information on different opioid treatments and risks as well as types of pain. The pain management App also includes a pain diary and a medication tracker. My Opioid Manager is free to download.
There is also an App for your pediatric patients to help them identify and deal with pain:
Achy Penguin, created by For Jack and Jill LLC, provides a simple and interactive way for children to identify and address pain issues. The app has the child point to what hurts then allows them to choose from a variety of activities to alleviate the pain. Activities include relaxation, breathing, distraction and visualization techniques according to its creators. This app is free to download.