Grant: Project Grant

One in five Canadians lives with chronic pain, which is pain that is persistent or recurring for three or more months. Caring for patients with chronic pain costs more than cardiovascular disease, cancer or diabetes. The recent opioid crisis has highlighted a need to improve the care of people with chronic pain; chronic pain is now being recognized as a public health crisis and comprehensive, population-based strategies are being developed to improve the care these patients need. Two sources of data, electronic medical records (EMR) and administrative health data, provide opportunities to facilitate improvements for chronic pain sufferers in Canada. An EMR is essentially a digital version of the traditional, paper-based medical record for a patient and these data, particularly from primary care, provide rich insight into a patient's health. Administrative health data captures all visits to the healthcare system that are covered by publicly funded health insurance (i.e. the Ontario Health Insurance Program [OHIP]). Currently there is no reliable method to identify chronic pain patients in these types of data. To date, research has relied on patient self-report of pain. We will develop accurate methods to identify patients with chronic pain in both primary care EMR data and administrative health data. We know that chronic pain affects men and women differently, so we will ensure that the methods we develop work equally well to identify pain in both men and women. Using these methods, we will study the healthcare needs of patients with chronic pain. This project will provide valuable information about the burden of chronic pain and help to inform an evolving national pain strategy. The development of valid methods to identify chronic pain in EHR and administrative health data has implications for clinical research, patient care and health policy.