Pain Buddy

Description: Pain Buddy is a serious game designed to help outpatient children with cancer to report their symptoms. Pain Buddy includes daily pain and symptom diaries, remote monitoring of symptoms, cognitive and behavioral skills training, and an incentive system to motivate engagement.

Status: We are currently finishing the first randomized clinical trial at the Children’s Hospital of Orange County that involves over 100 participants using this application. Preliminary results indicate that this mobile health technology is accepted and effective.

For further information: https://etad.calit2.uci.edu/2015/08/20/welcome-to-pain-buddy/

To see a presentation regarding this: Pain Buddy Presentation Slides

Related Publications:

  1. Fortier, M. A., Chung, W. W., Martinez, A., Gago-Masague, S., & Sender, L. (2016). Pain Buddy: A Novel use of m-Health in the Management of Children’s Cancer Pain. Computers in Biology and Medicine, 76, 202-214. doi:10.1016/j.compbiomed.2016.07.012
  2. Fortier, M.A., Chung, W.W., Cortes, H.G. & Gago-Masague, S. (2017). Preliminary efficacy testing of Pain Buddy: A web-based symptom management intervention for children with cancer. The International Society for Research on Internet Interventions (ISRII) 9th Scientific Meeting, Berlin, Germany, October 2017.
  3. Chung, W.W., Martinez, A., Gago-Masague, S. & Fortier, M.A. (2016). A Mobile Intervention for Improving Symptom Management and Quality of Life in Children with Cancer: Development and Efficacy Testing of Pain Buddy. International Society for Quality of Life Research (ISOQOL), Copenhagen, Denmark, October 2016.
  4. Chung, W.W., Martinez, A., Gago-Masague, S. & Fortier, M.A. (2016). Feasibility Testing of an Intervention for Pain Management in Children Undergoing Cancer Treatment: Pain Buddy. Annual Meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA), Chicago, IL, October 2016.
  5. Chung, W.W., Martinez, A., Gago-Masague, S. & Fortier, M.A. (2016). Pain Buddy: An Interactive, Mobile Intervention for Pain and Symptom Management in Children with Cancer. International Society for Research on Internet Interventions (ISRII), Seattle, WA, April 2016.
  6.  Gago-Masague, S., Zhang, A.Y., Martinez, A. & Fortier, M.A. (2014). Pain Buddy: Using Virtual Characters to Improve Home-Based Therapy for Children Suffering from Cancer. Medicine 2.0: Social Media, Mobile Apps 2.0 in Health, Medicine and Biomedical Research, Maui, HI, November 2014.