
PainPal
Empower chronic pain patients to take control of their own pain management.
Interviewing patients and clinicians in one of Singapores top hospitals provided insights that guided every decision.
Services we provided
Product strategy
UX research
UI design
Website design
Developer handover
Going into this project working with a specialist department of one of Singapore's most pioneering hospitals was a huge eye-opener for us as we had heard of Chronic Pain but didn't know much about it.
We interviewed key members of the pain management team including Anaesthetists, Psychotherapists, Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists, Doctors, and Physiotherapists to understand more about the illness and what information they need to be able to provide the best treatment. Interviewing Chronic Pain Patients we also interviewed chronic pain patients to find more about what treatment works for them and what is holding them back from achieving their goals.
A mobile app that helped patients manage diaries, keep up with their treatments, and provide recommendations and support when in the times they needed a bit more help.

CLINICIAN INSIGHT
“Up to 65% of our time in a consultation is spent reassuring patients rather than treating them.”
This prevents clinicians from serving more patients, creates longer queues and waiting times. We focused our attention to learning what support patients need outside of the clinic to reduce the length of the consultations.




Digital pain diaries with recommendations
Digitalised pain diaries allowed clinicians to keep more consistent records in order to identify patterns in connections between triggers and how the patient was feeling, reduce errors with lost paper diaries and help reassure patients when the pain triggered. The pain diary we designed consisted of a series of questions that would offer different suggestions how to cope and handle the situation depending on what symptoms they had and the answers the gave. Additionally it would also provide self treatment recommendations.

Patient insight
"I used to be so active but now my pain holds me back from enjoying my life. The exercises I am given are unclear and I am not confident I am doing them correctly”



Improved treatment programme with video feedback
Self conducted treatment is a large part of chronic pain management. One problem with self treatment is that patients lose confidence when they are on their own and question if they are doing the exercises correctly. Often the clinicians would ask the patient to have someone record them so they can review the footage and give guidance.
We included a split screen function where the person recording can view the exercise guide at the same time and can help offer some advice, the recording will also be sent directly saved to the patients records so the clinicians can provide feedback without meeting in person.

Visualisation of patient's records provide important insights to clinicians
Digitalised pain diaries allowed clinicians to keep more consistent records in order to identify patterns in connections between triggers and how the patient was feeling, reduce errors with lost paper diaries and help reassure patients when the pain triggered. The pain diary we designed consisted of a series of questions that would offer different suggestions how to cope and handle the situation depending on what symptoms they had and the answers the gave. Additionally it would also provide self treatment recommendations.


Comfort patients and reduce unnecessary consultations
After reviewing the patients record the clinician can send a personal letter to their patients. The letter would This is aimed to free up the clinicians time in a consultation and eliminate the need for lengthy phone calls.

Neeraj Kothari
Co-Founder & CEO at Cogniant