TelePain: Pain and Symptom Management in Rural Communities
Study Details
Study Description
Brief Summary
Patients in isolated rural settings often lack easy access to pain care and specialist services. Yet rural residents are more likely than their urban counterparts to be older; be in poorer overall health; suffer from more chronic or serious illnesses and disabilities; be uninsured or underinsured; and live in poverty. Telehealth is an emerging method of health care delivery that has been found useful and effective in many clinical settings and specialties. Telehealth technologies can bridge geographic distance and increase access to specialist care in rural settings. The investigators propose a cluster randomized clinical trial design to test the effects of a telehealth-enhanced palliative care pain-management program for 240 patients and 40 providers in rural health care settings. The proposed program will provide services to both patients and providers: Patients will conduct self-assessments and report pain and other symptoms via telehealth. Health care providers will receive telehealth-delivered case consultations that will include case management, evidence-based practice resources, and peer support. Providers and their patients will be randomly assigned to intervention groups, which receive the telehealth-enhanced palliative care pain-management intervention, or to control groups. The investigators primary aim is to compare patient self-reports of pain and quality of life in the intervention and control groups over 2 months. Aim 2 is to examine, in the intervention and control groups over 2 months, providers' knowledge and attitudes regarding pain and perceived competence in treating pain. Aim 3 is to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of the telehealth intervention. The investigators will use mixed effects models with patients nested within providers to evaluate the effect of the intervention on study outcomes. Findings from this study will be instrumental in advancing telehealth and improving pain management and palliative care among underserved rural populations.
| Condition or Disease | Intervention/Treatment | Phase |
|---|---|---|
|
N/A |
Study Design
Arms and Interventions
| Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
|---|---|
| Experimental: telehealth enhanced pain management video-case conferences for providers PainTracker for patients |
Behavioral: telehealth enhanced pain management
|
| No Intervention: usual care usual care |
Outcome Measures
Primary Outcome Measures
- pain [12 weeks]
pain severity
Secondary Outcome Measures
- PHQ 4 [12 weeks]
anxiety and depressive symptoms
Other Outcome Measures
- cost [12 weeks]
HUI-3
Eligibility Criteria
Criteria
Inclusion Criteria:
-
over 18 years of age
-
diagnosed with pain
-
completion of an outpatient visit in the past 2 months
-
functional fluency in English
-
no cognitive impairment
-
no problems with regular phone lines
Exclusion Criteria:
Contacts and Locations
Locations
| Site | City | State | Country | Postal Code | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | University of Washington | Seattle | Washington | United States | 98195 |
Sponsors and Collaborators
- University of Washington
- National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR)
Investigators
None specified.Study Documents (Full-Text)
None provided.More Information
Publications
- Bensink ME, Eaton LH, Morrison ML, Cook WA, Curtis RR, Gordon DB, Kundu A, Doorenbos AZ. Cost effectiveness analysis for nursing research. Nurs Res. 2013 Jul-Aug;62(4):279-85. doi: 10.1097/NNR.0b013e318298b0be.
- Eaton LH, Gordon DB, Wyant S, Theodore BR, Meins AR, Rue T, Towle C, Tauben D, Doorenbos AZ. Development and implementation of a telehealth-enhanced intervention for pain and symptom management. Contemp Clin Trials. 2014 Jul;38(2):213-20. doi: 10.1016/j.cct.2014.05.005. Epub 2014 May 17.
- STUDY00002019
- R01NR012450