Digital pain interventions: a promising new paradigm for pain control
Abstract
Background & Objective: A digitally enabled care environment offers a more holistic approach in managing pain in our patients and have the potential to fight the opioid crisis. Accordingly, several digital pain technologies have recently been introduced in our healthcare lexicon and are quickly transforming the healthcare industry. To our knowledge, no one has catalogued the use of these digital health technologies in the chronic pain patient population. The objective of this review article is to identify and classify the medical knowledge, concepts and properties of digital interventions that can be used to treat pain, and describe the most prominent trends in literature to guide future research.
Methodology: PubMed NCBI and EMBASE databases, Google Scholar and Google were searched for information on digital technology for pain management, individual devices, and to review studies describing each individual device. Manuscripts that explored the terminology, development or application of digital pain intervention technologies were selected. Eligible devices and manuscripts were assessed for quality features of relevancy in today’s healthcare environment, relative promise of the technology, and maturity of products and/or approval status, and inclusion in current practice or guidelines.
Results: Several novel digital pain therapeutics were reviewed including their mode of action, specific role in pain management, clinical trials, FDA regulatory status, relevance and advancements compared to their predecessors.
Conclusions: Digital health interventions are poised to become an accessible means of alleviating pain. Improving our knowledge about these novel digital patient-centric approaches to treating patients' pain has the potential to transform our health system.
Key words: Pain; Digital Intervention; Food & Drug Administration; Wearables
Citation: Nasir A, Mahmood S, Mahmood S. Digital pain interventions: a promising new paradigm for pain control. Anaesth. pain intensive care 2022;27(2):256−265; DOI: 10.35975/apic.v27i2.2175
Received: December 23, 2022; Reviewed: January 14, 2023; Accepted: February 10, 2023
