DockTales for Chronic Pain

June 25, 2026 updated by: University of Maryland, Baltimore

Evaluating Feasibility and Acceptability of DockTales for Chronic Pain

This study will evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of DockTales, a mobile health tool designed for adults with chronic pain. DockTales supports pain and sleep tracking through brief diaries, body-map pain reporting, reflective journaling, visual summaries, and optional AI-supported interaction. The study will be conducted completely remotely. Participants will complete 2 weeks of DockTales use and 2 weeks of REDCap-based daily monitoring, with the order randomized. The main goal is to determine whether DockTales is usable, acceptable, engaging, and practical for adults with chronic pain compared with standard REDCap monitoring.

Study Overview

Status

Not yet recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

This is a fully remote, randomized crossover pilot clinical trial designed to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of DockTales among adults with chronic pain. Chronic pain is defined as pain lasting for more than 3 months. A total of up to 60 participants will be enrolled.

Participants will be randomized in a 1:1 ratio to one of two study sequences. Participants assigned to Sequence 1 will complete 2 weeks of DockTales use followed by 2 weeks of REDCap-based daily monitoring. Participants assigned to Sequence 2 will complete 2 weeks of REDCap-based daily monitoring followed by 2 weeks of DockTales use. All participants will complete both study conditions.

Participants will complete questionnaires at baseline, after the first 2-week period, and after the second 2-week period. These assessments will evaluate feasibility, acceptability, usability, burden, engagement, technical issues, participant preference, and exploratory pain and sleep-related outcomes. Some participants may also complete an optional remote semi-structured interview after finishing both study conditions.

The primary outcomes are feasibility and acceptability. Feasibility will be assessed through recruitment, retention, adherence, completion of DockTales use, completion of REDCap monitoring, missing data, and technical issues. Acceptability will be assessed through satisfaction, engagement, perceived usefulness, ease of use, burden, willingness to use DockTales again, and preference between DockTales and REDCap monitoring.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

60

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 Contact

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Maryland
      • Baltimore, Maryland, United States, 21201
        • University of Maryland Baltimore School of Nursing
        • Principal Investigator:
          • Yang Wang, PhD
        • Contact:
        • Contact:

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

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Age ( 18-88 years old)
  • English speaker (written and spoken)
  • Chronic pain for at least 3 months
  • Smartphone/text messaging capability

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Any personal history of mania, schizophrenia, or other psychoses
  • Severe psychiatric condition (e.g. schizophrenia, bipolar disorders, autism) leading to hospitalization within the last 3 years.
  • Pregnancy or breast feeding
  • Impaired or uncorrected hearing

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: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Crossover Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Other: DockTales first
This is a crossover-designed study with one arm of chronic pain participants. All participants will complete both active (DockTales) and control (REDCap) interventions in a randomized sequence. The first arm will complete 2 weeks of DockTales first, and 2 weeks of REDCap monitoring
Behavioral: DockTales

DockTales includes several core features:

  1. Brief diary entries
  2. Body-map pain reporting/feedback
  3. Reflective journaling
  4. Optional AI-supported interaction The AI-supported feature is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis, treatment recommendations, mental health care, or emergency support.

The focus of the DockTales intervention is to support self-monitoring, reflection, engagement, and user experience among adults with chronic pain.

Other: REDCap monitoring
REDCap will be used to monitor daily symptoms and diaries from people with chronic pain.
Other: REDCap first
This is a crossover-designed study. Participants in this arm will start with 2 weeks of REDCap monitoring, followed by 2 weeks of DockTales use
Behavioral: DockTales

DockTales includes several core features:

  1. Brief diary entries
  2. Body-map pain reporting/feedback
  3. Reflective journaling
  4. Optional AI-supported interaction The AI-supported feature is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis, treatment recommendations, mental health care, or emergency support.

The focus of the DockTales intervention is to support self-monitoring, reflection, engagement, and user experience among adults with chronic pain.

Other: REDCap monitoring
REDCap will be used to monitor daily symptoms and diaries from people with chronic pain.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Enrollment rate
Time Frame: At the enrollment
Enrollment rate: the proportion (%) of recruited participants who enrolled in the study.
At the enrollment
Retention rate
Time Frame: End of Week 4
Retention rate: the proportion (%) of enrolled participants who finished the study
End of Week 4
Module completion rate
Time Frame: End of Week 4
Module rate: the proportion (%) of completed modules in the DockTales app. The DockTales app contains 1) daily monitoring module; 2) navigation map module; 3) AI avatar companion module; and 4) daily dairy module.
End of Week 4
Daily survey completion rate
Time Frame: End of Week 4
Module rate: the proportion (%) of completed daily surveys sent through DockTales and REDCap-based surveys.
End of Week 4
Levels of satisfaction
Time Frame: End of Week 2 and Week 4
Levels of satisfaction are assessed using a visual analogue scale ranging from 0 = not satisfied at all to 100 = extremely satisfied.
End of Week 2 and Week 4
Levels of enjoyment
Time Frame: End of Week 2 and Week 4
Levels of enjoyment are assessed using a visual analogue scale ranging from 0 = not enjoyed at all to 100 = extremely enjoyed.
End of Week 2 and Week 4
Levels of engagement
Time Frame: End of Week 2 and Week 4
Levels of engagement are assessed using a visual analogue scale ranging from 0 = not engaged at all to 100 = extremely engaged.
End of Week 2 and Week 4

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

University of Maryland, Baltimore

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 (Estimated)

July 17, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

October 24, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

October 24, 2027

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

June 15, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 25, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

July 2, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

July 2, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 25, 2026

Last Verified

June 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • HP-00119506

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

UNDECIDED

IPD Plan Description

The study team has not yet determined whether individual participant data will be shared. This pilot study will collect sensitive health-related data and DockTales free-text interaction data, which may inadvertently include identifiable information. Any future sharing would be limited to de-identified data, would exclude direct identifiers and raw free-text data unless appropriately redacted, and would occur only after IRB approval and in accordance with institutional policies.

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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