Grant: Planning and Dissemination Grant - Institute Community Support

Each year, 200,000 Canadians over the age of 50 years suffer fragility fractures. These fractures are associated with acute pain, loss of autonomy, anxiety, recurrent falls and in a significant proportion, transition to chronic pain syndromes. There is a gap in the availability of innovative tools and solutions to support patients in the management of their pain once they leave the hospital. Personalized approaches to pain require self-management based on sex and gender identity, tailored strategies, peer support and access to a community pharmacist. With these principles in mind and informed by self-efficacy theory, we propose to develop an evidence-based mobile application (app) to empower older individuals with the knowledge and skills needed to optimize adherence to treatment recommendations for acute pain management following a fracture, taking into consideration the novel concepts of sex- and gender-specific guidance, support of community pharmacists and of a peer e-network. In planning for this project, we will hold a one day meeting in Montreal where we will bring together healthcare professionals, researchers, trainees, patient representatives and computer science experts to examine results of preliminary work, to identify key areas where evidence-based clinical practices require better characterization, to discuss user-centered design principles in the development of mobile apps, to identify research questions and study designs to optimize a feasibility study and to explore future funding application and collaborations.