An interactive assessment system for children with chronic pain

Chronic pain is reported to be a common complaint in adolescents. The normal process of pain assessment involves the child travelling accompanied to their local hospital or clinic for a consultation and possibly completing a questionnaire. The questionnaires are then scored and summarized by the healthcare professional. Results are not immediate and may take several days. In this paper, an interactive assessment system for children with chronic pain was introduced. The system allows patients and carers to complete the questionnaires designed by the Bath Centre for Pain Research online without having to meet with the healthcare professional whilst receiving an immediate score. The information gathered will be analysed, summarised and fed back to the users to help them identify and assess their pain. A total of four interfaces were developed which accommodate the user, carer, researcher and administrator. Users and carers can complete questionnaires on the system, receive feedback and have access to their results in figure and graphics. The researcher can also view or download these details and the administrator has full control over the system. This interactive system has been designed to keep the users entertained whilst completing questionnaires. It not only can allow the users to feel more comfortable as they can complete the required questionnaire from home at their convenience but also clinician´s efficiency will be increased as they don´t have to physically meet with users to make assessments.