Use of smartphone application WhatsApp messenger in pain medicine

• Main Authors: Shiv Pratap Singh Rana, Sangeeta Singh
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications 2015-01-01
• Series: Indian Journal of Pain
• Subjects: WhatsApp; Pain Medicine; Smart Phone
• Online Access: http://www.indianjpain.org/article.asp?issn=0970-5333;year=2015;volume=29;issue=3;spage=185;epage=185;aulast=Singh

Use of Smart phone application in medical field is a novel concept and has been documented since long. Physicians, patients and their family has been found to be involved with these applications and they use emails, short message service (sms), and multimedia message service (mms) as a mode of communication with each other. This telephonic conversation helps in sharing information about the status of pain and other symptoms, initiation and continuing medical or surgical treatment, and post procedure follow up. It also helps the patient in cutting off the waiting time for consultation. At our centre, we are regularly using whatsApp application for making plans for patients with chronic pain.