Activity monitoring in daily life as an outcome measure for surgical pain relief intervention using smartphones

Abstract

We investigate the potential of a smartphone to measure a patient's change in physical activity before and after a surgical pain relief intervention. We show feasibility for our smartphone system providing physical activity from acceleration, barometer and location data to measure the intervention's outcome. In a single-case study, we monitored a pain patient carrying the smartphone before and after a surgical intervention over 26 days. Results indicate significant changes before and after intervention, particularly in physical activity in the home environment.