'It Doesn't Have to Hurt': Towards a Patient- and Family-Focused Digital Health Tool to Improve Children's Pain Management - A Consensus Conference

Canadian children experience pain that is preventable and undertreated. Pain that isn't treated well harms children's brains and bodies, is a struggle for families and health professionals, and costs the healthcare system time and money. Scientists have found ways to manage pain, but people do not usually know about these treatments. Families can be powerful champions for better pain management if they have the right information. One of our future research projects is to create the "It Doesn't Have to Hurt" digital tool to provide information about pain management at families' fingertips. This tool will build on a popular, award-winning "It Doesn't Have to Hurt" social media initiative for parents that we developed in collaboration with parents, children, and others. The "It Doesn't Have to Hurt" tool will be developed and tested using cutting-edge science and technology, and will share advice and information on pain treatments for procedures, surgery and disease in ways that are personalized and on-demand. The tool will be built in collaboration with children, families and other experts to make sure it is practical and easy to use, and then we will test how well it works and roll it out for Canadian families to use. To start this research project, we need to meet with parents and other experts at a two day meeting so that we can talk about what features the tool should have and create the best plans to develop and test the tool and ensure that Canadian families can find and use it. Once we know this information and have a plan, we will apply for additional funding from CIHR to support the next steps. This research will discover and share better ways to work with children and families as partners to make sure information about health treatments actually reaches the people who will use it every day. All of this will help to reduce unnecessary pain for Canadian children.