Previously submitted to: JMIR Bioinformatics and Biotechnology (no longer under consideration since Dec 21, 2022)
Date Submitted: Oct 20, 2022
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
A Case Report: Digital Musculoskeletal Triage and Rehabilitation Tools Improve Outcomes and Offer a Positive Experience for Lower Back Pain.
ABSTRACT
Background:
Integrating digital technology into healthcare has been advocated to meet increased demand (NHS England, 2019). A digital tool (DT) with two functions has been developed for this purpose. 1) Digital musculoskeletal triage tool (TT). 2) Guided self-management musculoskeletal tool (ST). This case study presents a patient's journey using the DT’s between January-May 2022. The patient was a 60 year-old male with a three-month flare-up of episodic persistent mechanical lower back pain (LBP).
Objective:
To display the effectiveness of the digital triage tool and self-management tool for the management of a case study presenting with mechanical low back pain.
Methods:
Remote monitoring was completed digitally. Primary quantitative outcomes were pain on a Numerical Rating Scale (NRS) and goal attainment on the Patient Specific Functional Scale (PSFS). The secondary quantitative outcomes were sleep quality on a NRS and patient satisfaction via the net promoter score (NPS). Qualitative data was collected via an unstructured telephone interview.
Results:
Retrospective data analysis revealed improvements in all outcome measures. Pain scores improved significantly from 5/10 at initial to 1/10 (NRS). Clinically meaningful change of four points for both goals was observed. Sleep quality improved from 7/10 to 10/10 (NRS) on discharge. Both NPS and Qualitative data revealed the patients positive experience of using the DT.
Conclusions:
Although the single case study design limits generalisation of results, it suggests DT’s offer users many benefits. Both DT’s enhance speed of access to appropriate care pathways and can improve patient outcomes. The user is given greater freedom and flexibility compared with usual care. If integrated into healthcare it could reduce costs whilst enhancing efficiency and patient experience.
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