Hello, I’m Dr. Mihir Kamdar, and I’m excited to share with you some groundbreaking findings from our recent randomized controlled trial of ePAL, our continuous monitoring digital app we created at Mass General to improve the care of patients with serious illness.
Patients with serious illness commonly go into symptom crises in the space between visits with their clinicians. This can lead not only to unneeded suffering, but often results in ED visits and hospitalizations.
In these moments, patients and their loved ones struggle to get the help they need quickly, and often have no resort but to head to the ED.
We wanted to test whether we could improve the care of patients with serious illness by monitoring their symptoms in between visits with their clinicians, and thus we created a smartphone app prototype called ePAL. We decided to test ePAL first in patients with pain from advanced cancer.
Cancer-related pain is a significant challenge, leading to considerable suffering and frequent hospitalizations. Our study aimed to address this by leveraging technology to provide real-time support and interventions through the ePAL app. We enrolled 112 patients, all with incurable cancer and moderate to severe pain, dividing them into two groups—one receiving usual care and the other using the ePAL app.
The results from our randomized controlled trial were compelling. Patients using ePAL reported a 26% reduction in pain scores, a significant achievement considering the that many pain medications receive approval for use with smaller reductions. Many barriers to improving pain exist, include challenges in pain assessment, opioid stigma, and confusion about medication side effects. ePAL effectively addressed many of these issues, helping patients manage their pain more effectively and reducing their distress, thereby significantly improving their ability to feel empowered in managing their pain
One of the most remarkable outcomes was the reduction in pain-related hospitalizations. Patients using ePAL had nearly 70% significantly fewer hospital admissions due to pain, which is incredibly common in the field of Oncology, highlighting the potential of continous monitoring technologies like ePAL to not only improve patient outcomes but also reduce unwanted and costly healthcare utilization.
The findings from this trial are incredibly promising. ePAL is the first digital continuous monitoring platform to demonstrate such significant improvements in symptoms management and healthcare utilization for patients with serious illness in a randomized controlled trial
Looking ahead, we’ve taken the lessons learned from our ePAL prototype and created a new continuous monitoring platform called mytuesday. The mytuesday platform expands beyond oncology to target all types of serious illness, and expands beyond pain to address the multitude of common symptoms that patients with serious illness experience, such as nausea, shortness of breath, and fatigue. The mytuesday app will not only improve symptom management for patients navigating the challenges of serious illness, but help them remain at home with their loved ones instead of in the ED or the hospital.
At Tuesday Health, our mission is to improve the quality of life for patients facing serious illnesses. By expanding on our ePAL randomized controlled trial into the creation of our MyTuesday continuous monitoring platform, we hope to empower more patients to manage their symptoms effectively, reduce unnecessary hospitalizations, and, ultimately, improve their overall well-being.