The Implementation of a Post-operative Communication App to Improve Pain Control and Opioid Use

Digital communication tools are becoming ubiquitous in healthcare, though their impact on patient/provider communication, healthcare utilization, and outcomes remains poorly established. M Health Fairview (MHFV) in collaboration with the Center for Learning Health System Sciences (CLHSS) Rapid Eval team will be evaluating one such communication application: OPY, which leverages the Epic-Care Companion functionality to remove barriers in communicating with the patient's care team. This project will evaluate the effectiveness of a digital, post-operative patient engagement tool (Epic-Care Companion made available through MyChart), OPY, which has the goal of preventing patients from becoming addicted to opioids or to suffer from opioid misuse or diversion. In the proposed pragmatic trial, standard care with education available in MyChart and the patient after visit summary will be augmented by OPY. OPY is available to patients starting the same day they go home from surgery with a new opioid prescription. OPY provides a daily interactive experience that collects patient pain and side-effect information, provides advice for pain management, and uses behavioral "nudges" to encourage timely weaning and responsible disposal of opioid medications. The primary goal of this project is to evaluate the effect of two versions of OPY on measures of opiate use relative to the standard of care in a pragmatic randomized controlled trial.