PainTracker Self-Manager: a web-based platform to promote chronic pain self-management and track treatment outcomes

We propose to develop and test a web‐based patient empowerment platform, PainTracker Self‐Manager (PTSM), that can support integrated multimodal care in a wide variety of specialty and primary care settings. We will adapt PainTracker, a web‐based outcome and treatment tracking tool already successfully deployed in multiple University of Washington clinics to create the PTSM self‐management tool that helps assess, engage, activate, and support patients’ efforts to self‐manage their chronic pain in collaboration with their physicians, advanced practice providers, and nurse care managers. PTSM design will be based on 4‐phase patient engagement strategy derived from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Phase 1 focuses on achieving consensus on the clinical problem definition, treatment goals and timeline. Phase 2 focuses on promoting values‐based action and acceptance of pain. Phase 3 focuses on providing skills in chronic pain self‐management with close monitoring of patient reported outcomes and actigraphy. Phase 4 focuses on providing autonomy support to promote maintenance of self‐management behaviors. Phase 5 involves generating a patient registry with the above data for use in quality improvement research. We will engage patients, providers and investigators in designing PTSM, reviewing prototypes, and conducting usability testing. In a 6‐month clinical trial, we will compare 50 intervention patients from the UW Center for Pain Relief who receive PTSM to 50 historical control patients who have received the basic PainTracker. The primary outcome for this trial will be patient activation, with secondary outcomes of: chronic pain self‐efficacy, chronic pain acceptance, perceived efficacy in physician‐patient interactions, patient and provider satisfaction.