Device idea to help with migraine triggers tracking – Seeking feedback
Hi everyone,
I am a Master student in Industrial Design and I have an idea of a product to help with migraine symptoms and triggers monitoring. I would like to kindly ask for feedbacks from other migraine sufferers.
I suffer from migraines myself and the doctor advised me to keep a migraine diary to help with the diagnosis and to identify the triggers. I have tried it, on paper and with different apps. I was never able to record accurately my symptoms, either because the journal/app is not flexible enough (eg: how to accurately record pain intensity and location varying during the same day, exact time of medications, every meals…). Most importantly, the pain makes it very complicated to write down all this information on the moment and if I do it after, then I might forget.
My questions are:
- What is your experience with migraine diaries/apps?
- If you had some kind of smart device (similar to a smart watch), that help you to keep track of symptoms and triggers, what features should it have? How would it be?
Some thoughts:
- A slider to adjust pain intensity during day
- Possibility to enter the location of the pain at every moment
- A recording function, to maybe record orally information, when pain is too strong
- Gps, barometer…
Thank you very much in advance!
Sorry for my english, it's not my mothertongue.
Welcome to the migraine.com community! We are glad you're here. You have posed an interesting query. I think it's fantastic that you have an idea for creating an interactive, intuitive device to help migraine sufferers track their complex and varied migraine attacks. My husband uses an app called Migraine Buddy that has been very helpful for him and his doctors, but as you stated there are opportunities to fill some gaps to bridge the black and white aspects of an attack with what we experience in real time. Something easy and insightful would be great for those who want to track their attacks. Tracking during an active attack is challenging especially with some of the symptoms we have to endure. I think you have some really great ideas already! What might also be helpful is a function that tracks our bodies biological reactions. Something to track biofeedback, stress levels, heart and respiration functioning and body temperature would be helpful. I've seen various apps that do simialr things, but not in a migraine tracking app. Many times our bodies will give us clues that something is going to happen, but they may be subtle and we miss them until the attack starts. It will be interesting to see what other feedback you get from the community. I hope you get some good insights for developing your device. Warmly, Cheryl migraine.com team Hi Cheryl, thank you so much for your response, it is extremely helpful and reinforces my impression of the relevance of such a tool. It's interesting to see that others feel the same way about the limitations of migraine apps. I hadn't thought of a feature to record biological reactions either and will definitely try to incorporate it. Thanks again for your insight! All the best. LouiseMarie It was my pleasure. Please keep us updated on your progress with this idea. Warmly, Cheryl migraine.com team
Hello LouiseMarie,
I just read your article about the different apps to track migraines and I wonder if there is an update on your ideas.
Thinking about the different tracking apps I used in the past and their lack of convenience/ information I would like to give my idea about an easier way.
For tracking my migraine I would like to use my Apple Watch as it already provides me with basic information about „my health“ and is always by my side.
If there would be the possibility of just opening the tracking app, being able to use a slide stating the level of migraine, click on the medication etc..
The app should be customized on the iPad/ computer with all the personal aspects and give you the ability to create reports choosing from weather information to medical information etc.
I hope this will be of any help and I’m hoping of the development of better tracking apps.
Have a nice day
Nika
this is such a great idea! If it's not created already, you certainly have an idea for an easy, convenient and effective app for tracking migraine! I'm tagging here so she can hopefully see your comment.
Best
Alene (team member)
