According to Nascimento, the app had helped him learn as a student as he studied under DaSilva. “Back in the day, with their first versions, just to be optimized, it was good for them to also use our feedback, not only the feedback from the patients, but ours (the students),” Nascimento said. “You have the theory in the classroom, and you try to apply the concepts. For us, it was like, ‘Okay, we learned that, but we don’t see it used in the app.’ So it was good for us to give them some feedback as well.” So far, medical researchers have tested GeoPain in treating pain caused by migraines, chronic
DaSilva said he started by creating a grid so the patient could put not only the intensity of the pain but where the pain was,” DaSilva said. “When I arrived here in Michigan, then I realized that the 2-D map, the drawing, was not really good for the patients, because a body is in 3-D. The patients in the studies, and even those in the clinics, they were excited about this. ‘Hey, I want to use that, for my own good, and show it to my doctor,’ (they said).” Thiago Nascimento, M.D.,a pain research investigator in the University Research Lab, was a student of DaSilva’s when the app was first being developed, Nascimento was a student of DaSilva’s, which gave him a chance to try it out. “The drawing of the pain (was useful). Every time somebody had pain, you ask them ‘one to ten,’” Nascimento told the Daily. “However, that doesn’t really paint the picture of how they’re feeling, it’s not very precise, not very accurate. We were studying the technique of giving the patient a 2-D or 3-D space, so they can visualize it, something better than a number. It’s easy for us to kind of to see what the patient is feeling, although it’s just a drawing.” Nascimento said the app is a way of bridging the gap between the basic medical knowledge of most patients and the expertise of the doctors. “You kind of find common ground,” Nascimento said. “You can remove that gap. The doctor-to-patient relationship, it makes it easier for them (the doctor) to explain what’s going on. We’d start with the app: ‘Okay, just tell me how you’re feeling and let’s try to see the picture and compare.’ Like, let’s look and see how you were feeling a few months ago, and how you’re feeling today … It was easier for us to even track the follow-up – Are you feeling better or not – instead of just choosing a random number, like, ‘Before it was a 7, now it’s a 6.’ You can really see, ‘Oh, you’re getting better.’ It was clear for us to see.”
TMD (temporomandibular joint disorders, neuropathic pain, and pain related to chemoradiotherapy.
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