Design of a handheld electronic pain, treatment and activity diary.

Effective tools for recording and analyzing data on patients' pain experience, use of pain treatments, and physical function are needed to improve communication between providers and patients with noncancer chronic pain. A handheld electronic diary (HED) that can be used throughout the day may provide more useful and accurate information about pain, treatments, and function than available paper and on-line diaries that are designed to be used once daily, weekly or less often. Based on user-specified requirements we designed and built a prototype HED with 7 modules. Diary queries are followed by multiple choice responses customized to the patients' expected responses. Usability testing confirmed user comprehension and acceptability of the queries, response sets, and interface.