JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Chronic pain affects approximately 19% of the European population and poses significant challenges, both in terms of individual suffering and the financial burden on healthcare systems worldwide. While healthcare provider expertise is critical, empowering patients with self-management tools has become increasingly important for addressing long-term pain effectively.

Objective:

This report details the development and implementation of Dolodoc, a mobile application designed by an R&D team at the University Hospitals of Geneva.

Methods:

This report is done according to the ICheck-DH guidelines

Results:

The app allows users to monitor their pain and its impact across seven dimensions of daily life. A virtual coach guides users through the process, offering tailored advice from a corpus of over 80 evidence-based recommendations created by experts. The project, which lasted four years, was completed within budget and highlights the importance of early stakeholder involvement, including pain experts and end-users, to ensure the solution met user needs. Significant efforts were dedicated to ensuring the recommendations were both evidence-based and accessible. While the app has been freely offered to patients who may benefit, one limitation of this initiative is the lack of predefined Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure its success quantitatively.

Conclusions:

This implementation report serves as a real-world example of leveraging mobile technology in a university hospital setting to address the needs of chronic pain patients and empower them in managing their condition.