A pilot study held at the Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC) involved an early version of the Pain Buddy prototype, a mobile app that helps children express the severity of their pain during cancer treatment. The goal of the prototype is to help reduce the pain they experience by pinpointing which discomforts they are having.
While the pilot study used an earlier iteration of the prototype developed by students, the CHOC website illustrates the ideas using screenshots of the PreviewLabs prototype, which is something we’re sure would make the artists we worked with at Pajama Llama Studios proud.
Because of the promising results of the initial study, and the for a prototype that would withstand a larger study, Dr. Michelle Fortier from the UC Irvine School of Medicine contacted PreviewLabs.
The challenge of this prototype is to make the process of communicating what patients are feeling playful and accessible while remaining accurate. This way, Pain Buddy can help medical teams treat patients more effectively when they are not in the hospital where they can be closely monitored.
Pain Buddy also offers ways to teach children coping techniques to combat the pain. It covers methods such as deep breathing and progressive muscle relaxation to provide relief.
The article on the CHOC website discusses the potential benefits of the application. An eight-week study was conducted on 48 children between 8 and 18 years old, most of which had been diagnosed with leukemia.
Read the Article on the CHOC Website.