Tuesday, September 25, 2007

ReliefInsite.com: AJAX-based Pain Diary

Filed under: Anesthesiology , Medicine , Net News , Ob/Gyn , Pain , Surgery


We learned about ReliefInsite.com at a recently held Health 2.0 conference in San Francisco. The website is touted as a secure online pain management service, for both the physician and the patient.

Here's how it works. A patient logs in to keep a record of his pain with all kinds of associative descriptions, factors and modifiers: standard pain score, pain distribution, terms describing his/her pain, modifiers like meds taken, physical activity performed, etc. The site is based on AJAX, the same technology that GMail is using, hence there is a two way communication with a server without many page reloads. The interface is intuitive on both patient and physician's ends. It should also be noted, that Fred Eberlein, founder and CEO of ReliefInsite.com, tells Medgadget that their service is in full compliance with HIPAA, and is extremely secure.

During the conference and at home, we checked out all of the ReliefInsite service modules:

  • body map ( i.e. pain location/intensity)

  • pain characteristics (as described by patients; the module also feature menses pain for women to track)

  • symptoms (the gamut runs from fatigue and headaches to insomnia; patients can also create customizable symptoms)

  • lifestyle and functionality (i.e. the psycho-social aspect of patient's life: impact on work, finances, life, etc.)

  • medications and treatment

  • patient notes (i.e. anything that is recorded by a patient. It is also worth to emphasize that the website constantly urges patients not to get fixated on their pain, and that the service is to help monitoring and communication with physician and other interested parties.)

  • The website also features reminders, as well as powerful standard and fully customizable reports that one can view, print or save on the computer.

    In terms of expense, the site is free for MDs/DOs. Everything is included: case management, reports, etc. The basic patient diary is also free. Premium service for patients is a reasonable $6.95 for 1 month; $29.95 for 6 months; or $49.95 for 1 year.

    Your correspondent, an anesthesiologist, felt that such a service can simplify your clinical life, whether by improving patient care through improved productivity, or by allowing patients to take charge and record a very subjective vital sign, pain. Also, what I liked was the ability to run reports and always to come back in time and to show a patient's previous pain levels, drugs taken, etc, and to adjust meds or therapies based on hard data from the past.

    We highly recommended this sophisticated service for pain docs, surgeons, OB-Gyn specialists, spine care docs, oncologists, and everyone in between.

    Take the tour: ReliefInsite ...

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    replies: 2 comments
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    Terrific execution!

    Any idea on what terms ReliefInsite makes the tool available to physical therapists? (Sure, I could visit their site and find out myself, but I'm not done gorging on MedGadget goodies yet...).


    Posted by: gjudd
    on September 25, 2007 02:51 PM GMT

    In reply to the questions by gjudd:

    Physical therapists, and healthcare providers in general, can register and use our service for free. To register go to our home page at www.reliefinsite.com and click on the "Register it's free" button in the box marker Healthcare Providers.

    If you have any questions you can email or call me at 518 632 4507.

    Take care,

    Fred Eberlein


    Posted by: Fred Eberlein
    on September 27, 2007 04:47 AM GMT

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