Gaming Technology to Engage Adolescent Sickle Cell Patients in Pain Management

January 14, 2019 updated by: Klein Buendel, Inc.

PINPOINT: Gaming Technology to Engage Adolescent Sickle Cell Patients in Precision Pain Management

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a common genetic disorder characterized by episodes of pain, yet assessments to identify type, intensity, frequency, and phase of pain among SCD adolescents is lacking. Research shows that interactive gaming technology can enhance adolescents' learning, and can be especially effective in delivering health-related messages and tools to improve their self-care. Pinpoint is an interactive gaming tablet app that will be developed with the significant input of clinical experts to assist SCD teens with better identification and self-report of their pain.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is the most common inherited blood disorder in the U.S. and disproportionately affects African Americans and Hispanics. Approximately, 1,000 U.S. children are born with SCD annually. SCD results from abnormal hemoglobin and causes red blood cells (RBCs) to become misshaped ("sickle-shaped"). Sickled cells can block the flow of blood in small arteries causing tissue and organ damage and other life-threatening comorbidities. SCD complications can be serious and have a significant impact upon well-being and quality of life. Pain is the hallmark symptom associated with SCD, and is the most common clinical problem seen in children and the number one cause of SCD-related hospital admissions. If left untreated, these painful episodes can result in morbidity and mortality. Accurate assessment of pain specifiers (type, frequency, and intensity of pain) can help with ameliorating pain quickly and effectively. Despite children being accurate self-reporters of their pain, strategies which are effective and engaging to assist with pain identification are lacking. Reducing barriers to collection and promoting the value of accurate SCD pain assessment is a need in pediatric medicine. Pinpoint will be an innovative interactive assessment tool that engages patients while allowing physicians to collect important health data. This project will test the feasibility of applying gamification principles to develop a tablet application ("app") for 13-17 year olds with SCD. Specifically, this Phase I SBIR project will (1) develop a Pain Assessment Tool (PAT) to describe and categorize specific types of pain experienced by adolescents with SCD; and (2) create an app ("Pinpoint"), that will translate the PAT into gamified technology. The goal of Pinpoint is to engage adolescent patients and improve pain specification by developing a game-based pain assessment tool delivered via a tablet app to engage adolescent SCD patients, improve their pain specification self-report, and improve pain management by clinicians. The PAT will be developed using expert guidance from preeminent SCD clinicians. User-centered Design theory will be applied in the development of the app and will be guided by iterative cognitive interviews and focus groups with members of the target population, SCD teens. The project specific aims are to (1) develop the PAT using guidance from an Expert Advisory Board (EAB) of SCD clinicians; (2) conduct a series of cognitive interviews with adolescent SCD patients to guide and refine PAT development; (3) conduct iterative focus groups with adolescent SCD patients to guide and refine user interface design of the Pinpoint app; (4) program a functional Pinpoint prototype; and (5) conduct usability testing of the prototype with 13-17 year old SCD patients to assess functionality, navigation, and satisfaction. This project is innovative and timely. Pinpoint will be the first tablet app to identify and translate specific pain types for SCD into a gamified app using applied gamification principles.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

13

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Colorado
      • Golden, Colorado, United States, 80401
        • Klein Buendel, Inc.
    • Indiana
      • Munster, Indiana, United States, 463213963
        • Hilton Publishing Company

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

13 years and older (Child, Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Phone Interview, Focus Group, and Usability Inclusion Criteria:

  • Be 13-17 years of age
  • Be diagnosed with Sickle Cell Disease
  • Able to read and speak English
  • Able to assent to participate

Phone Interview, Focus Group, and Usability Exclusion Criteria:

  • Not 13-17 years of age
  • Not diagnosed with Sickle Cell Disease
  • Unable to read and speak English
  • Unable to assent to participate

Healthcare Provider Interview Inclusion Criteria:

  • Be a healthcare provider to teens with sickle cell disease
  • Be 18 years of age or older
  • Able to read and speak English
  • Able to consent to participate

Healthcare Provider Interview Exclusion Criteria:

  • Not a healthcare provider to teens with sickle cell disease
  • Not 18 years of age or older
  • Unable to read and speak English
  • Unable to consent to participate

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Pinpoint App
Tablet application.
Other: Pinpoint App
Tablet app with pain assessment and communication education, and pain assessment tool.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
System Usability Questionnaire
Time Frame: After 1-hour usability session
Ten likert-type questions assessing user-friendliness of technology. Each question has five answer options that range from "Strongly Agree" to "Strongly Disagree". Scores range from 0-100. A score of 68 or above is considered above average. All scores averaged.
After 1-hour usability session

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Klein Buendel, Inc.

Collaborators

National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD)
Hilton Publishing Company

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

January 15, 2017

Primary Completion (Actual)

September 30, 2017

Study Completion (Actual)

September 30, 2017

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

September 20, 2017

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 20, 2017

First Posted (Actual)

September 25, 2017

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

February 6, 2019

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 14, 2019

Last Verified

January 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 1R43MD010746-01 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)
  • 0308 (Klein Buendel, Inc.)

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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