Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Using the Fitbit to Track Pain, Sleep, and Activity

Using the Fitbit in a Program to Track Pain, Sleep, and Activity

I have been fascinated with the Fitbit activity tracker ever since I purchased my first one over a year ago.  Since that time, Fitbit has updated the form factor twice, most recently releasing the Fitbit Flex.

As a psychologist who specializes in assessing and treating people who have chronic pain, I have fought for years to identify smart ways to track my patients' sleep, activity, and pain ratings to help them develop a clear path out of the often debilitating cycle of pain/inactivity/depression that develops when coping with a chronic health problems.

When I was trained initially at the University of Washington, we were taught to ask patients to track their activity and pain using paper and pencil forms like the one shown here:
I used to ask patients to fill out these questionnaires to tell me how many minutes they spent sitting vs. reclining vs. walking for every hour of the day (for seven days).  I would also ask them to tell me their hourly pain rating, and indicate when they took their medicines.  As you can imagine, the compliance rates were horrible!  I cannot tell you how many times I saw patients sitting in my waiting room filling out the sheets for the entire preceding week.

Being somewhat of a tech nerd, I figured "well, I'll just put together an awesome website that patients can log into and fill in their data at home." Makes sense right? However, the compliance rates with web-based data entry were even worse than with the paper and pencil measures.

I began experimenting with giving my patients the fitbit about six or eight months ago, and have been blown away by the results.  The units allow me to collect sleep and activity data which we supplement with pain ratings collected via SMS text messaging.  Finally I have been able to collect the information I need to help patients see where they are, so together we can develop a road map toward increased functioning and overall greater wellness.

 I am now trying to improve the technology for widespread distribution and need your help.  If you are a patient suffering with chronic pain and would like to try the fitbit/SMS program to assess your pain, please contact me.  There is no cost to you (aside from normal texting charges).  Or, if you are interested in just learning more about my program, I am happy to discuss it with you.

Find me at www.restrainyourpain.com or email at dr.aaron.wolfson@gmail.com or @painrpa.

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