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Seattle Mama Doc - Dr Wendy Sue Swanson

Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson MAMA DOC

Prevention, Pediatrics, Technology & Innovation

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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.

Findings & Reach

Measured:

Result:

Conclusion/Comments:

Duration of Pilot

3/6/2018 to 2/25/2019

Extended pilot to reach >150 downloads per a mid-pilot meeting

# of T&A surgeries performed

701

Based on EHR data

# of downloads

172 = 24.5% conversion

This cannot be decisively concluded because we cannot be certain that every surgical patient was offered the app nor can we be certain every download was a part of our population

Highest area of usage

# times pain medication logged: 4000

Predominantly Acetaminophen and Ibuprofen
(~1750 each)

Most frequently viewed education

Pain & Comfort: 450 views

Pages far more popular than PDFs or videos

Median length of engagement

4 days

Our data was on pain curve and medication use skewed due to lack of standardization in use duration

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.

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Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson

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