Abstract
e-health programs carry promise to support self-management of chronic illness, including chronic pain. Whether such programs succeed depends not only on patients' acceptance and adherence, but also on health care providers’ attitudes and willingness to support the use of such programs. Health care providers working with chronic pain have a focal role in supporting patients’ coping with pain, and their input is therefore essential for the development and utility of any tool in management of chronic pain.
Using service design methods, the present study seeks to; 1) explore health care providers’ experiences and challenges in chronic pain management, and 2) identify health care providers’ needs, requirements and potential challenges to usage of a chronic pain e-health program.
Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with healthcare providers (N=12; i.e., an anaesthesiologist, general practitioners, psychologists, a psychiatrist, physical therapists, a registered nurse and an occupational therapist) across health service levels, all working within chronic pain management.
The interviews provide insight into health care providers’ challenges and unmet needs in management of chronic pain, as well as their prerequisites and necessities for making a chronic pain e-health program usable and efficient. The interviews reveal that health care providers often feel at a loss due to the complexity of the many challenges presented by chronic pain patients. Findings indicate a need for a common explanatory model for chronic pain across health care providers. Findings also underline lack of time to explain and provide a biopsychosocial understanding of pain for patients, and to guide the promotion and acquirement of appropriate pain coping strategies. The results emphasize the utility and potential benefit of an e-health program in a) structuring treatment and follow-up of chronic pain patients in health care practices, and b) identifying important aspects of self-management of chronic pain. Health care providers’ preferences for the intervention's content, context of use, and platform type are identified, as well as potential challenges and obstacles for implementation and use of such a technological program in health care practices.
The analysis identifies health care providers' preferences for the intervention's content, context of use, and platform type; as well as potential challenges and obstacles for implementation and use of such a technological program in health care practices.
In conclusion, findings present valuable guidance from health care providers to be considered in building, prototyping and testing a chronic pain e-health self-management program.
Using service design methods, the present study seeks to; 1) explore health care providers’ experiences and challenges in chronic pain management, and 2) identify health care providers’ needs, requirements and potential challenges to usage of a chronic pain e-health program.
Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with healthcare providers (N=12; i.e., an anaesthesiologist, general practitioners, psychologists, a psychiatrist, physical therapists, a registered nurse and an occupational therapist) across health service levels, all working within chronic pain management.
The interviews provide insight into health care providers’ challenges and unmet needs in management of chronic pain, as well as their prerequisites and necessities for making a chronic pain e-health program usable and efficient. The interviews reveal that health care providers often feel at a loss due to the complexity of the many challenges presented by chronic pain patients. Findings indicate a need for a common explanatory model for chronic pain across health care providers. Findings also underline lack of time to explain and provide a biopsychosocial understanding of pain for patients, and to guide the promotion and acquirement of appropriate pain coping strategies. The results emphasize the utility and potential benefit of an e-health program in a) structuring treatment and follow-up of chronic pain patients in health care practices, and b) identifying important aspects of self-management of chronic pain. Health care providers’ preferences for the intervention's content, context of use, and platform type are identified, as well as potential challenges and obstacles for implementation and use of such a technological program in health care practices.
The analysis identifies health care providers' preferences for the intervention's content, context of use, and platform type; as well as potential challenges and obstacles for implementation and use of such a technological program in health care practices.
In conclusion, findings present valuable guidance from health care providers to be considered in building, prototyping and testing a chronic pain e-health self-management program.