Researchers to look for patterns in patient data from ManagingLife's pain diary app

A digital journal of pain occurrences maintained by the users of an innovative Manage My Pain app will be the key source for their upcoming study, York University psychology researchers say. The mobile app's developer ManagingLife will provide the large database to York U in this collaborative effort.

ManagingLife created the app with an aim to improve doctor-patient communication. However the researchers believe the data could help shape future treatments of pain.

"These patient-reported outcomes will help us reveal previously unexplored patterns in pain, both in terms of intensity and the number of occurrences," says Professor Joel Katz, Canada Research Chair in Health Psychology at York U. "Most chronic pain studies involve hundreds of participants but thanks to this app, we have several thousands of patients' data to work with including hundreds of thousands of data points."

The analysis will be done at York U's Human Pain Mechanisms Lab, where Katz is the principal investigator. The lab has published numerous studies about the psychological, emotional, and biomedical factors involved in acute and chronic pain that affect approximately 20 per cent of the Canadian population.

"I am very excited that ManagingLife will work with lead researchers at York University like Dr. Katz in this project," says Tahir Janmohamed, CEO of the mobile technology firm. "I strongly believe that empowering patients to record their pain issues themselves, we would be able to unlock invaluable insights to help drive research for better treatment of chronic pain."