Aglance Solutions recently launched and advanced pain tracking and mapping software Navigate Pain. The software tool creates a digital pain chart or pain map of the body. The pain map serves to visualize, document and track pain over time. In addition the tool helps start each consult on topic. Thus, Navigate Pain addresses day-to-day challenges of physiotherapists.
Who would have guessed so much information could be captured in a pain chart of the body.
Aglance Solutions launches the Navigate Pain software for clinical professionals. A new standard for pain tracking is emerging.
State of the Art Insight
When gathering information about a patient’s history most physiotherapy clinics will create a pain chart on paper. In addition, physiotherapists rely on written text to subsequently track pain. Some clinics have started to use simple electronic pain drawings to indicate pain location. For example, the head, neck or back regions.
General pain location provides limited detail for physiotherapists to use their insight of anatomy and physiology. Nor does general pain location provide enough information on the origin of the pain.
How a patient’s pain symptoms change within a general location is far more informative than pain location alone. Such as pain location in the low back or knee. Navigate Pain provides the detail for a smarter starting point. Physiotherapists can use Navigate Pain to support reasoning and conclusions.
Navigate Pain is a new technology that provides detailed pain maps of the body. Now we can see beyond what normally cannot be seen or described with words.
Navigate Pain is neither a replacement or an upgrade to paper drawings or pain location tools. Navigate Pain is a novel and innovative communication and documentation platform for pain tracking. As a result Navigate Pain provides a series of detailed pain chart fit for clinical professionals.
Show Progress and Gains in a Different Way
One of the main struggles for physiotherapists is quantifying the progress of a patient. Patient focus and satisfaction are important to physiotherapists. Thus, physiotherapists become excited and sometimes overly enthusiastic when they learn about Navigate Pain. It is now possible to show patients how much progress or recovery has been gained.
Indeed, physiotherapy like other service professions are under pressure to improve the delivery of care. Areas for improvement include (1) accurate description of underlying causes, (2) a diagnosis if possible and (3) a reduction in patient anxiety and concerns. A timely and successful resolution of symptoms is the ultimate outcome.
As we aim higher we should not let change introduce fear in our steps but rather be lead by the goal to improve patient care.
Navigate Pain helps physiotherapist get accurate picture of a patients pain symptoms. Moreover, pain tracking is from home to clinic is possible. As a result, physiotherapists can assess treatment progress and engage in fruitful consultations. Thus, Navigate Pain allows subsequent consultations to start on topic. Treatment plans can be modified based on the patient’s report or pain chart.
Aim High for Patient Care
Physiotherapists aim high for patient satisfaction. The goal – to improve a patients well-being. Patients need comfort and care, and should know their concerns have been heard. Only then will patients return and refer their friends and family.
Patient empowerment is a big topic. As more information becomes available to patients about their conditions the greater the expectation become for documenting symptoms. Documentation of pain is not only standard protocol but ensures patients are being heard. Therefore tools, such as Navigate Pain, provide physiotherapists with an efficient communication strategy.
Furthermore, a large percentage of patients will encounter more than one episode of back or neck pain. Having a patient history, as a series of pain charts, allows physiotherapist to quickly assess recall the patients history. This can reveal hidden patterns. Also the physiotherapist can immediately reconnect with their patient when she returns.
The Uncertainty Principle
It is often difficult to be certain if improvements in pain symptoms are purely the result of a treatment. It is uncertain how much success can be attributed to the actions of the physiotherapist. There are many external factors.
On average, less than 20% of patients complete their exercise plan (patients who enroll in a research studies are likely to have a higher completion rate). This means compliance for the ‘treatment plan’ is can be low. It is then worth considering which actions of the physiotherapists was most effective? The prescribed exercises or the discussion of the pain complaints?
Furthermore, a gap of 7 days or more between consultations can affect the accuracy of pain recall. The brain forgets about pain. Forgetfulness and poor recall increase uncertainty about changes in symptoms. It is not yet customary to record pain charts of the body or use pain tracking tools between consultations. However the need for tracking pain is becoming more obvious.
Navigate Pain addresses gaps and uncertainties. Moreover, Navigate Pain provides a documentation and quantifies progress over the entire consultation period. In conclusion, Navigate Pain makes tracking of pain between consults the new standard.
How Navigate Pain Helps
Below are benefits of Navigate Pain. These benefits improve efficiency, patient satisfaction and documentation requirements.
Navigate Pain helps by:
- Creating pain charts for quantifying pain area.
- Tracking pain intensity and detailed location over time
- Documenting progress or recovery
- Showing a patient their improvments
- Minimizes time spent reviewing a patient’s pain chart and history
- Creating an informed starting point prior to the first consult
- Providing the level of detail fitting for a physiotherapists’ experience and education
- Improving performance by enabling an understanding a patient’s progress
- Giving additional insight into the variety of pain complaints and discomfort
- Easing sharing of patient symptoms between clinical professionals
Tools like Navigate Pain which show how much a patient has been helped is pushing patient satisfaction to the next level. The documentation and quantification of the pain charts are additional benefits.
