The Future of Pain Medicine

Abstract

OUR SPECIALTy BEyOND OPERATIVE ANESTHESIAManagement Best Practices Inter-Agency Task Force report, 8 and recognition of surgery as a risk factor for the development of chronic opioid use, 9 has caused the medical community to respond in recent years with opioid prescribing recommendations and safety initiatives [10][11][12] and an emphasis on multimodality as the pathway to better pain management. 13 The acceptance of pain as a potentially chronic condition defined at the level of the individual is also driving the field of pain medicine toward increased personalization. In addition, subspecialty areas in acute and transitional pain to complement the established field of chronic pain have emerged in recent years to fill existing gaps and provide comprehensive care. 14,15 In looking ahead, we wish to highlight three priority areas for improvement: prediction, coordination, and implementation.

Virtual transitional pain service delivered via telehealth is effective in preventing new and persistent opioid use amongst post-surgical spine patients

“…21 Beyond the limitations in completely tapering patients off opioids, brick-and-mortar TPS has not been widely adopted, 21 potentially due to cost and accessibility challenges. 22,23 Thus, to address these limitations of brick-and-mortar TPS, we designed a remote telehealth TPS protocol focusing on preventing continued opioid use while improving behavioral health. We incorporated an opioid-tapering CBT protocol as CBT has also been demonstrated to improve post-surgical pain management, behavioral health, and emotional wellbeing.…”