Design of a Decision Support System for Chronic Pain Management to Support and Empower Nursing Professionals

Digital decision support systems (DSS) are playing an increasingly important role in healthcare, as they can reduce the burden on nursing professionals and improve the quality of patient care, particularly in chronic pain management. The N!CA project aims to unburden and empower nurses by providing evidence-based decision support. The goal of this work is the design of a DSS that assists nursing professionals in pain assessment and decision-making. The system is based on an algorithm that analyses pain characteristics while identifying critical cases. Its development followed a user-centred approach, actively involving nursing professionals and medical experts at multiple stages, including iterative prototyping to ensure practical applicability. The developed DSS has the potential to support nursing professionals by reducing documentation workload and promoting evidence-based decision-making, as well as enhancing patient safety. Key technical challenges encountered include algorithm optimisation and ensuring seamless integration with existing electronic health records. Future steps include clinical validation of the prototype and integration into other areas of nursing care.