Comparative Effectiveness Trial of Communication Strategies in the Management of Chronic Pain

Overview

Investigators will compare Clinical Decision Support (CDS) versus Patient Education and Activation Tools (PEATs) in patients prescribed long-term or multiple opioids to measure outcomes that are important to patients. Primary outcomes are pain interference, physical function, and satisfaction with patient-physician communication. Secondary outcomes are overall Health-Related Quality of Life and high-risk prescribing, including prescriptions over 90 morphine milligram equivalents per day and co-prescribing of benzodiazepines and opioids. Patients in the PEAT arm will receive patient materials during the intervention, developed to engage patients in chronic pain treatment, prior to Primary Care Physician office visits. In the provider-facing CDS arm, PCPs will receive computerized reminders about appropriate opioid use during office visits for enrolled patients. Patients in both groups will receive questionnaires about pain interference, quality of life, and physician-patient communication through the patient portal one month after each visit to their Primary Care Physician (PCP). Investigators will use multi-level regression models to compare the effectiveness of these two communication strategies.

Investigators will compare two strategies: (1) Engage PCPs with Clinical Decision Support at the point of care, raising active alerts through the Electronic Health Record (EHR) when there is risk of inappropriate opioid prescribing, thus leading to informed decision-making with the patient about alternative treatments; versus (2) Engage patients prior to their PCP visit using Patient Education and Activation Tools (PEATs) administered via REDCap, helping patients to prepare for their visit and encouraging discussion about treatment preferences, values and treatment goals at the time of the visit, thus leading to shared decision-making with the provider. Our CDS intervention will use "Choosing Wisely" and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines, and our Patient Education and Activation Tool intervention will use widely disseminated material developed by Consumer Reports and the ACPA. Investigators will assess whether improved communication and patient activation through these strategies improve patient-reported outcomes related to pain interference and HRQOL. To assess these outcomes, investigators will use NIH Patient Reported Outcome Measurement Information System (PROMIS®) questionnaires to capture health domains identified by our patient partners as most important. Using PROs will also help capture whether the use of either of these strategies leads to unintended consequences for patients when opioids are reduced and other pain management strategies are not substituted. Recruitment procedures: The study team mails study materials including an introductory brochure, information sheet, and initial contact letter to eligible participants. Eligible participants are then called and asked if they would like to enroll in the study, at which point the study team obtains consent over the phone. Non-responders, eligible participants who the study team has not been able to reach by phone and for whom a voicemail was left, are automatically enrolled in an abbreviated arm of the study after two weeks of non-response. Those enrolled in both the full study PEATs group and abbreviated PEATs group will be sent the PEATs materials two days before an appointment with their primary care clinician. Participants may choose to opt out of any arm of the study. Data collection: Upon enrollment in the fully study, investigators will send patients an enrollment questionnaire, which includes questions on education, language proficiency, and health literacy. At this point, investigators will also send the two PROMIS questionnaires (pain interference and physical function) via REDCap. The study team has programmed the surveys to be sent via automatic email in REDCap. The email will contain a link where participants can access the questionnaire and redeem their Amazon gift card instantly. The total time to take this questionnaire is 2 minutes. All enrolled participants will receive monthly PROMIS questionnaires during the 12-month intervention period. Enrolled patients who have any follow-up visits during this intervention period in both full study arms will be sent the Communication Questionnaire (COMRADE) via REDCap one day after each office visit with their PCP. For participants enrolled in the abbreviated arm of the study, the study team will have access to medical records that will allow for a retrospective pull of relevant patient-reported outcome measures and PCP satisfaction data collected by the health system.