South Aus­tralia's Pain Research and Inno­va­tion Hub

Eval­u­at­ing the effec­tive­ness of an intro­duc­to­ry chron­ic pain edu­ca­tion pro­gram using hos­pi­tal data and direct con­sumer involvement

To under­stand why SAL­HN Pain Unit con­sumers fail to attend their pain edu­ca­tion ses­sion, and to iden­ti­fy fac­tors asso­ci­at­ed with sat­is­fac­tion and use­ful­ness among attendees.

Key issue:

While pre-clin­ic group edu­ca­tion ses­sions are com­mon in Pain Clin­ics to man­age wait lists and improve pain knowl­edge and self-man­age­ment, high non-atten­dance rates and unknown longer-term use­ful­ness ham­pers their implementation.

Expect­ed outcomes:

Find­ings will be direct­ly trans­lat­able to clin­i­cal prac­tice, includ­ing bet­ter triag­ing and tai­lor­ing the pro­gram to patients. This may result in greater atten­dances, which may ben­e­fit clients, reduce staff resources, and reduce wait­list times. Any sub­se­quent pro­gram changes made may improve sat­is­fac­tion and self-man­age­ment, and reduce reliance on hos­pi­tal care.

Project lead: Amelia Sear­le
Con­tact: amelia.​searle@​sa.​gov.​au
Lead agency: SAL­HN Pain Man­age­ment Unit
Esti­mat­ed project time­line: Mar 2020 — Dec 2023

Har­ness­ing chil­dren’s pic­ture books to teach chil­dren about pain

Children’s fun­da­men­tal beliefs about pain and injury are shaped from ear­ly child­hood and can be guid­ed by social, cul­tur­al, and envi­ron­men­tal con­texts. In this project we want to under­stand whether shared read­ing of pic­ture books (between parent/​caregiver and child) pro­vides a poten­tial avenue for chil­dren to learn about pain.

Key issue:

Under­stand­ing how pain and injury are socialised to young chil­dren dur­ing shared read­ing of pic­ture books.

Expect­ed outcomes:

Deter­mine whether shared read­ing of pic­ture books can be har­nessed to edu­cate chil­dren about pain and injury.

Project lead: Sarah Wall­work
Con­tact: sarah.​wallwork@​unisa.​edu.​au
Lead agency: Uni­ver­si­ty of South Aus­tralia
Esti­mat­ed project time­line: Apr 2022 — Dec 2023

Aus­tralian Lon­gi­tu­di­nal Study on Back and Neck Pain

The Aus­tralian Lon­gi­tu­di­nal Study on Back and Neck Pain aims to not only bet­ter under­stand back and neck pain, but also improve pain man­age­ment prac­tices across our nation, ulti­mate­ly to reduce the indi­vid­ual and soci­etal bur­den. This is the first-ever lon­gi­tu­di­nal epi­demi­o­log­i­cal study of its mag­ni­tude and scope in Australia.

Key issue:

Back and neck pain are com­plex issues impact­ing the lives of mil­lions of Aus­tralians, and the finan­cial bur­den on our health­care sys­tem is massive. 

The Aus­tralian Lon­gi­tu­di­nal Study on Back and Neck Pain aims to:
- Deter­mine the preva­lence and inci­dence of back and neck pain in the Aus­tralian pop­u­la­tion.
- Iden­ti­fy risk fac­tors asso­ci­at­ed with the devel­op­ment and per­sis­tence of back and neck pain.
- Deter­mine the impact of back and neck pain on phys­i­cal and men­tal health, qual­i­ty of life, and health­care util­i­sa­tion and costs.
- Inves­ti­gate the effec­tive­ness of var­i­ous treat­ment approach­es for back and neck pain.
- Devel­op evi­dence-based rec­om­men­da­tions for the pre­ven­tion and man­age­ment of back and neck pain at a pop­u­la­tion level.

Expect­ed outcomes:

The aim of the Aus­tralian Lon­gi­tu­di­nal Study on Chron­ic Back and Neck Pain is to improve health and well­be­ing for peo­ple with back and/​or neck pain in Aus­tralia.

If you want to par­tic­i­pate, or if you want to read more about the study, please vis­it www​.PainStudy​.org​.au.

Project lead: Rut­ger de Zoete
Con­tact: rutger.​dezoete@​adelaide.​edu.​au
Lead agency: The Uni­ver­si­ty of Ade­laide
Esti­mat­ed project time­line: Sep 2023 — Oct 2033

Sub­op­ti­mal care and inap­pro­pri­ate opi­oid use in chron­ic pain: Crit­i­cal analy­sis of two case stud­ies and the health­care expen­di­ture burden

This project involves prepa­ra­tion of a peer-reviewed paper that uses two exem­plar cas­es to demon­strate inad­e­qua­cies with­in the cur­rent sys­tems sup­port­ing those with chron­ic pain, and the asso­ci­at­ed impacts these inad­e­qua­cies have on patient out­comes and health­care costs. Analy­sis of these cas­es demon­strat­ed a com­bined health­care cost of AUD $312,705 through­out their inpa­tient admis­sions, with nil appar­ent ben­e­fit to either patient’s pain experience.

Key issue:

This project aims to raise aware­ness of the high costs asso­ci­at­ed with chron­ic pain, par­tic­u­lar­ly when it is poor­ly managed.

Expect­ed outcomes:

We hope dis­sem­i­na­tion of these exem­plar cas­es can be used in advo­ca­cy to redi­rect fund­ing to improve ser­vices to pre­vent and man­age pain ear­li­er in the com­mu­ni­ty, to improve patient outcomes.

Project lead: Jac­in­ta John­son
Con­tact: jacinta.​johnson@​sa.​gov.​au
Lead agency: Com­mis­sion on Excel­lence and Inno­va­tion in Health (Chron­ic Pain Statewide Clin­i­cal Net­work Steer­ing Com­mit­tee)
Esti­mat­ed project time­line: Jun 2021 — Jan 2024

A 3‑year ret­ro­spec­tive review of hos­pi­tal admis­sions involv­ing opi­oid tox­i­c­i­ty in South Australia

This study aims to char­ac­terise hos­pi­tal admis­sions involv­ing opi­oid tox­i­c­i­ty across South Aus­tralia to guide future imple­men­ta­tion and eval­u­a­tion of risk mit­i­ga­tion strate­gies. It will involve a ret­ro­spec­tive review of hos­pi­tal casemix data and will use Inter­na­tion­al Clas­si­fi­ca­tion of Dis­eases, 10^th Edi­tion codes (T40.0‑T40.4) to iden­ti­fy admis­sions involv­ing pre-hos­pi­tal opi­oid tox­i­c­i­ty in pub­lic hos­pi­tals across South Aus­tralia. Demo­graph­ic and episode of care data will be summarised.

Key issue:

To pro­vide an under­stand­ing of hos­pi­tal admis­sions in SA which involve opi­oid tox­i­c­i­ty to sup­port plan­ning for harm min­imi­sa­tion initiatives.

Expect­ed outcomes:

This will pro­vide data to help guide devel­op­ment of strate­gies to reduce harm and will pro­vide a base­line against which such strate­gies can be measured.

Project lead: Jac­in­ta John­son
Con­tact: jacinta.​johnson@​sa.​gov.​au
Lead agency: SA Phar­ma­cy
Esti­mat­ed project time­line: Jun 2020 — Aug 2023

Func­tion­al, psy­cho­log­i­cal and pain-relat­ed patient out­comes from a psy­cho­log­i­cal­ly informed group-based move­ment program

Our pro­gram offers the expe­ri­ence of move­ment, in a safe envi­ron­ment with­out uncon­trolled pain or sig­nif­i­cant flare ups. We build the con­fi­dence to self-man­age and re-engage in every­day activities.

Key issue:

To deter­mine whether the ​‘Move­ment is Med­i­cine’ (MiM) group-based pro­gram with­in the Flinders Med­ical Cen­tre Pain Man­age­ment Unit is effec­tive in improv­ing phys­i­cal and psy­cho­log­i­cal func­tion, as well as pain, for our patients.

Expect­ed outcomes:

Find­ings will help to deter­mine the length and type of any ben­e­fits, and may jus­ti­fy extend­ing this pro­gram more broad­ly, includ­ing to patients under­go­ing lum­bar pro­ce­dures. Extend­ing this pro­gram may then high­light which type of patients expe­ri­ence the great­est benefits.

Project lead: Marin­da Roth­mann
Con­tact: marinda.​rothmann@​sa.​gov.​au
Lead agency: SAL­HN Pain Man­age­ment Unit
Esti­mat­ed project time­line: Jul 2019 — Jul 2024

Opti­mis­ing the deliv­ery of phys­i­cal exer­cise ther­a­py for peo­ple with chron­ic neck pain

Opti­mis­ing the deliv­ery of exer­cise ther­a­py for peo­ple with chron­ic neck pain.

Key issue:

Among many clin­i­cal man­age­ment options, phys­i­cal exer­cise ther­a­py is the most promis­ing and cur­rent­ly the main­stay treat­ment for chron­ic neck pain. Despite its promise, how­ev­er, the deci­sion to choose exer­cise ther­a­py over oth­er forms of treat­ment is a dou­ble-edged sword: it is effec­tive for some patients, but inef­fec­tive or even detri­men­tal for oth­ers. Our proof-of-con­cept stud­ies show that the brain plays a cru­cial role in chron­ic neck pain. For exam­ple, we found that that peo­ple with chron­ic neck pain show alter­ations in brain struc­ture and func­tion when com­pared to pain-free peo­ple, and that these struc­tur­al and func­tion­al dif­fer­ences are asso­ci­at­ed with neck pain symp­toms. Cru­cial­ly, we have shown that diver­gent out­comes of exer­cise ther­a­py are cor­re­lat­ed with the dif­fer­ences in brain struc­ture and func­tion, which sug­gests that neu­roimag­ing can be used to prospec­tive­ly pre­dict the direc­tion of ther­a­peu­tic effects. The pro­posed study inves­ti­gates whether neu­roimag­ing of the brain can pre­dict the ben­e­fit or risk of exer­cise ther­a­py for chron­ic neck pain.

Expect­ed outcomes:

Cur­rent­ly, clin­i­cal guide­lines for the man­age­ment of chron­ic neck pain use a one-size-fits-all approach: all indi­vid­u­als with chron­ic neck pain com­plete the same ther­a­peu­tic pro­gram. By con­trast, our pro­posed work will make it pos­si­ble to strat­i­fy patients into groups based on a sin­gle MRI scan, and pre­dict whether the pro­posed ther­a­peu­tic pro­gram will be effec­tive. This inno­v­a­tive solu­tion will help opti­mise the effec­tive­ness of exer­cise ther­a­py for chron­ic neck pain, which is a sig­nif­i­cant health chal­lenge. Select­ing patients whose symp­toms might ben­e­fit from exer­cise ther­a­py will improve their qual­i­ty of life and return to social- and work-relat­ed activ­i­ties, while opti­mis­ing resource allo­ca­tion from a con­sumer and health sys­tem per­spec­tive. This will con­tribute towards a more per­son­alised approach to how ther­a­peu­tic exer­cise ther­a­py is delivered.

Project lead: Rut­ger de Zoete
Con­tact: rutger.​dezoete@​adelaide.​edu.​au
Lead agency: The Uni­ver­si­ty of Ade­laide
Esti­mat­ed project time­line: Oct 2023 — Dec 2024

A Crit­i­cal Analy­sis of Online Social Sup­port for Young Peo­ple Expe­ri­enc­ing Chron­ic Pain

This project aims to exam­ine best char­ac­ter­is­tics of online social sup­port for young peo­ple who have chron­ic pain and inves­ti­gate avail­able online sup­port options.

Key issue:

The study aims to exam­ine the char­ac­ter­is­tics of online social sup­port (OSS) for chil­dren and ado­les­cents liv­ing with chron­ic pain. Fur­ther­more, this study aims to address gaps in pre­vi­ous research apprais­ing the avail­able OSS to the evi­dence base for best prac­tice online health sup­port and to enable the devel­op­ment of bet­ter sup­port for chil­dren expe­ri­enc­ing chron­ic pain.

Expect­ed outcomes:

The expect­ed out­comes for this study are to iden­ti­fy:
• What meth­ods of OSS are avail­able for chil­dren expe­ri­enc­ing chron­ic pain?
• What are the bar­ri­ers to access­ing OSS for chil­dren and their care­givers?
• What are the fea­tures, for­mat, modal­i­ty and char­ac­ter­is­tics of the avail­able OSS?
• How do the char­ac­ter­is­tics of the avail­able OSS com­pare to the health literature’s gold stan­dard for OSS for young peo­ple with chron­ic health con­cerns?
• How does the evi­dence con­tex­tu­alise to the new­ly devel­oped online health sup­port chat by the Women’s and Children’s Hos­pi­tal, Ade­laide SA?

Project lead: Nic­ki Fer­encz
Con­tact: nicki.​ferencz@​sa.​gov.​au
Lead agency: WCHN
Esti­mat­ed project time­line: Mar 2021 — Jun 2023

Explor­ing group-deliv­ered, pain man­age­ment pro­grammes from the per­spec­tive of the con­sumer: A qual­i­ta­tive analy­sis of ret­ro­spec­tive data

Ret­ro­spec­tive Qual­i­ta­tive: the­mat­ic analy­sis of data col­lect­ed at the con­clu­sion of group-deliv­ered, pain man­age­ment programmes.

Key issue:

Under­stand­ing what mat­ters to con­sumers of group-deliv­ered, pain man­age­ment pro­grammes.

This project (and the relat­ed sys­tem­at­ic review) is pri­mar­i­ly focussed on group-relat­ed com­ments, how­ev­er we will analyse all data (not only group relat­ed comments).

Expect­ed outcomes:

Iden­ti­fy­ing themes and pro­vid­ing insights con­tribut­ing to a bet­ter under­stand­ing of par­tic­i­pants’ perspectives.

Project lead: Marelle Wil­son
Con­tact: marelle.​pocock@​mymail.​unisa.​edu.​au
Lead agency: Uni­ver­si­ty of South Aus­tralia
Esti­mat­ed project time­line: Apr 2023 — Apr 2024

Explor­ing the per­spec­tives and expe­ri­ences of con­sumers relat­ing to the group itself, in group-deliv­ered pain man­age­ment pro­grammes: A sys­tem­at­ic review and meta-syn­the­sis of the qual­i­ta­tive literature

A sys­tem­at­ic review inves­ti­gat­ing the per­spec­tives and expe­ri­ences of con­sumers relat­ing to the group itself, in group-deliv­ered, pain man­age­ment programmes.

Key issue:

There is cur­rent­ly a lim­it­ed under­stand­ing of which group-relat­ed con­structs could be mea­sured and sub­se­quent­ly pro­mot­ed with­in pain man­age­ment pro­grammes to improve out­comes. This review will aim to syn­the­sise and inter­pret group-relat­ed expe­ri­ences from the per­spec­tive of the consumer.

Expect­ed outcomes:

Syn­the­sis and dis­cus­sion themes relat­ing to group experiences.

Project lead: Marelle Wil­son
Con­tact: marelle.​pocock@​mymail.​unisa.​edu.​au
Lead agency: Uni­ver­si­ty of South Aus­tralia
Esti­mat­ed project time­line: Dec 2022 — Apr 2024

The rela­tion­ships between pain self-effi­ca­cy, pain cat­a­strophis­ing, depres­sion, opi­oid use, and chron­ic pain

We use ePPOC data for the SAL­HN Pain Man­age­ment Unit to bet­ter under­stand how cat­a­strophis­ing and self-effi­ca­cy may mediate/​moderate asso­ci­a­tions between pain, depres­sion and opi­oid use.

Key issue:

To improve our under­stand­ing of poten­tial psy­cho­log­i­cal mediation/​moderation mech­a­nisms involved in adjust­ing to chron­ic pain.

Expect­ed outcomes:

We antic­i­pate this study will pro­vide nov­el find­ings of the pat­terns of rela­tion­ships between vari­ables asso­ci­at­ed with chron­ic pain. Find­ings have the poten­tial to inform pain man­age­ment treat­ment plan­ning by enhanc­ing our under­stand­ing of mod­i­fi­able fac­tors that may be able to be a focus on clin­i­cal intervention.

Project lead: Amelia Sear­le
Con­tact: amelia.​searle@​sa.​gov.​au
Lead agency: SAL­HN Pain Man­age­ment Unit
Esti­mat­ed project time­line: Jan 2022 — Oct 2024

Under­stand­ing the expe­ri­ence of pain in chil­dren and adolescents

This project aims to char­ac­terise the psy­cho-social impact of pain dur­ing child­hood and adolescence.

Key issue:

Using data col­lect­ed by patients and par­ents in the Pain Unit at the Women’s and Children’s Hos­pi­tal, South Aus­tralia, the project inves­ti­gates the inter­re­la­tion­ship between fac­tors and lon­gi­tu­di­nal out­comes of pain expe­ri­ence and man­age­ment. A key issue being inves­ti­gat­ed is how pain cat­a­strophis­ing, func­tion­al dis­abil­i­ty and men­tal health symp­toms relate to pain dur­ing this age, as well as how such fac­tor change dur­ing the course of pain management.

Expect­ed outcomes:

Pro­posed out­comes include peer-reviewed pub­li­ca­tions and con­fer­ence pre­sen­ta­tions, as well as inform­ing cur­rent prac­tice in the Unit to achieve bet­ter out­comes for patients and their families.

Project lead: Nic­ki Fer­encz
Con­tact: nicki.​ferencz@​sa.​gov.​au
Lead agency: WCHN
Esti­mat­ed project time­line: Aug 2023 — Nov 2023

Ear­ly inter­ven­tion, com­mu­ni­ty based mod­el of care for ado­les­cents with chron­ic pain

Co-cre­at­ing a mod­el of care for ado­les­cents with chron­ic pain using infor­ma­tion from youth and parent/​carer advi­so­ry groups and indi­vid­ual inter­views with ado­les­cents with chron­ic pain.

Key issue:

Ear­ly inter­ven­tion for chron­ic pain in ado­les­cence is crit­i­cal to pre­vent future chronic­i­ty, life bur­den and health sys­tem impact. How­ev­er, care for ado­les­cents with chron­ic pain is frag­ment­ed across pri­ma­ry and ter­tiary sec­tors, and the Pae­di­atric Chron­ic Pain Ser­vice in SA has severe­ly lim­it­ed capac­i­ty. To pro­vide ear­ly inter­ven­tion, we must change the way ado­les­cents with chron­ic pain are cur­rent­ly managed.

Expect­ed outcomes:

The deliv­er­ables will include: a report of the find­ings from the con­sul­ta­tion with SA ado­les­cents with chron­ic pain and their parents/​carers relat­ed to the impact and chal­lenges of liv­ing with chron­ic pain, per­ceived local gaps and needs; and a final co-designed ear­ly inter­ven­tion com­mu­ni­ty-based MoC for ado­les­cents with chron­ic pain ready for implementation.

Project lead: Car­olyn Berry­man
Con­tact: carolyn.​berryman@​unisa.​edu.​au
Lead agency: WCHN
Esti­mat­ed project time­line: Mar 2023 — Feb 2024

Eval­u­a­tion of a rig­or­ous long-term mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary approach to spinal cord stim­u­la­tion in a ter­tiary pain clinic

We eval­u­ate the SAL­HN Pain Unit mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary neu­rostim­u­la­tion pro­gram, which includes edu­ca­tion, and detailed psy­cho­log­i­cal and func­tion­al assess­ment, ther­a­peu­tic input and 2‑year follow-up.

Key issue:

What are the long-term med­ical, func­tion­al and psy­cho­log­i­cal out­comes for patients under­tak­ing our mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary spinal cord stim­u­la­tion program?

Expect­ed outcomes:

Doc­u­ment­ing low adverse out­comes will val­i­date our rig­or­ous approach. Doc­u­ment­ing func­tion­al and psy­cho­log­i­cal improve­ments (along­side pain-relat­ed improve­ments) is impor­tant, giv­en our aim is to improve qual­i­ty of life beyond any pain relief achieved. Map­ping patients’ long-term adjust­ment may help to adapt clin­i­cal ser­vice deliv­ery, includ­ing with­in pre- and post-implant ther­a­peu­tic input.

Project lead: Amelia Sear­le
Con­tact: amelia.​searle@​sa.​gov.​au
Lead agency: SAL­HN Pain Man­age­ment Unit
Esti­mat­ed project time­line: Oct 2022 — Oct 2025

Improv­ing the expe­ri­ence of patients vis­it­ing the Emer­gency Depart­ment (ED) for chron­ic pain

We aim to bet­ter screen for chron­ic pain, pro­vide doc­tor edu­ca­tion, and co-design a chron­ic pain resource for patients with­in the Flinders Med­ical Cen­tre ED.

Key issue:

Many peo­ple vis­it EDs because of chron­ic pain. How­ev­er, this acute care ser­vice is not well-suit­ed for chron­ic con­di­tions, and these patients can expe­ri­ence high lev­els of dissatisfaction.

Active self-man­age­ment is the best treat­ment for chron­ic pain, and may help reduce fur­ther ED vis­its. Var­i­ous self-man­age­ment resources/​treatments are avail­able but may not be acces­si­ble or well-under­stood by peo­ple vis­it­ing EDs. It is also unclear how well-received this infor­ma­tion would be dur­ing ED vis­its, which is often a point of crisis.

Expect­ed outcomes:

This research has the poten­tial to effect real improve­ment in the lives of CP suf­fer­ers who have dif­fi­cul­ty man­ag­ing their con­di­tion, poten­tial­ly reduc­ing their pain and dis­tress, and allow­ing them to man­age their pain with­in the com­mu­ni­ty. This research also has the poten­tial to sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduce the num­ber of ED pre­sen­ta­tions, thus free­ing up resources for oth­ers in need.

Project lead: Amelia Sear­le
Con­tact: amelia.​searle@​sa.​gov.​au
Lead agency: SAL­HN Pain Man­age­ment Unit
Esti­mat­ed project time­line: Mar 2020 — Sep 2024

The fea­si­bil­i­ty and accept­abil­i­ty of deliv­er­ing the Com­fort Abil­i­ty Pro­gram (CAP) for ado­les­cents with chron­ic pain and their parents/​carers in a South Aus­tralian setting

The project aims to inves­ti­gate whether a one- day, group psych-edu­ca­tion­al pro­gram can be fea­si­bly run in a ter­tiary set­ting and whether young peo­ple and their par­ents find this pro­gram satisfactory.

Key issue:

Using ser­vice data obtained from patients who attend the Wom­en’s and Chil­dren’s Hos­pi­tal, South Aus­tralia, the project aims to inves­ti­gate the fea­si­bil­i­ty and accept­abil­i­ty of deliv­er­ing the CAP in an Aus­tralian setting.

Expect­ed outcomes:

The expect­ed out­comes were that it would be pos­si­ble to suc­cess­ful­ly deliv­er the CAP in Aus­tralia and that patient, par­ent or car­er, and staff eval­u­a­tions would demon­strate high lev­els of fea­si­bil­i­ty and accept­abil­i­ty. The out­comes of this fea­si­bil­i­ty study will inform the design of a sub­se­quent effec­tive­ness ran­domised clin­i­cal tri­al, com­par­ing pain and func­tion out­comes of usu­al treat­ment with usu­al treat­ment plus CAP delivery.

Project lead: Nic­ki Fer­encz
Con­tact: nicki.​ferencz@​sa.​gov.​au
Lead agency: WCHN
Esti­mat­ed project time­line: Sep 2020 — Dec 2023

Youth Advi­so­ry Group for pain research

The Youth Advi­so­ry Group for pain research aims to increase engage­ment of peo­ple with lived expe­ri­ence of pae­di­atric chron­ic pain in all phas­es of the research process. This group start­ed in Jan­u­ary 2023 and is run out of the Uni­ver­si­ty of South Aus­tralia. We cur­rent­ly have 13-youth advi­sors (aged 13 – 18 years) from across Aus­tralia, with vary­ing chron­ic pain con­di­tions, that meet month­ly via Zoom.

Key issue:

We recog­nise young peo­ple as experts in our work. Our aim is to make sure they are under­stood, accu­rate­ly rep­re­sent­ed, and influ­en­tial to chron­ic pain research. Our Youth Advi­so­ry Group (YAG) for Chron­ic Pain pro­vides an oppor­tu­ni­ty for young peo­ple to speak on issues that affect them.

Expect­ed outcomes:

Youth advi­sors con­sult on chron­ic pain research. They pro­vide advice to inves­ti­ga­tors on aspects asso­ci­at­ed with research stud­ies, such as the design of patient infor­ma­tion leaflets; opin­ions about study web­sites; for­mat of research ethics con­sent forms; estab­lish­ment of par­tic­i­pant reg­istries; and, input into study pro­to­cols and def­i­n­i­tion of out­come mea­sures. We are open to tak­ing requests to con­sult on rel­e­vant research projects across Australia.

Project lead: Hay­ley Leake
Con­tact: hayley.​leake@​unisa.​edu.​au
Lead agency: Uni­ver­si­ty of South Aus­tralia
Esti­mat­ed project time­line: Jan 2023 — Dec 2023

Sleep­ing well with per­sis­tent pain: Using cog­ni­tive-behav­iour­al ther­a­py for insom­nia to improve sleep, pain, and qual­i­ty of life for indi­vid­u­als with chron­ic pain

We tri­al 6‑week small-group Cog­ni­tive Behav­iour Ther­a­py for insom­nia in Pain Unit patients. Out­comes include sleep quantity/​quality, insom­nia symp­toms, pain severity/​interference, qual­i­ty of life, fea­si­bil­i­ty and satisfaction.

Key issue:

Is small-group CBTi fea­si­ble and effec­tive at improv­ing sleep, pain and qual­i­ty of life among peo­ple attend­ing a ter­tiary unit for chron­ic pain?

Expect­ed outcomes:

This tri­al offers the poten­tial to improve the sleep, qual­i­ty of life and psy­cho­log­i­cal out­comes of our Pain Unit patients with comor­bid sleep prob­lems. Estab­lish­ing effec­tive­ness evi­dence with our con­sumers would jus­ti­fy mak­ing CBTi more broad­ly avail­able for the large num­ber of our patients with both pain and sleep dis­tur­bance. Our fea­si­bil­i­ty and con­sumer engage­ment evi­dence will help to work­shop key par­tic­i­pa­tion bar­ri­ers, mak­ing this ther­a­py acces­si­ble to more patients.

Project lead: Amelia Sear­le
Con­tact: amelia.​searle@​sa.​gov.​au
Lead agency: SAL­HN Pain Man­age­ment Unit
Esti­mat­ed project time­line: Jan 2023 — Dec 2024

Arti­fi­cial sen­so­ry neu­ron biosen­sors to pre­dict post-sur­gi­cal pain

This project aims to deter­mine whether a pro­to­type point-of-care test­ing device can be engi­neered to objec­tive­ly mea­sure and pre­dict the devel­op­ment of PPSP in ani­mal mod­els of chron­ic and post­op­er­a­tive nerve pain.

Key issue:

Objec­tive mea­sure­ment for diag­nos­tic pre­dic­tion for chron­ic pain devel­op­ment for surgery.

Expect­ed outcomes:

The over­ar­ch­ing objec­tive of our appli­ca­tion is that devices with noci­cep­tor-like cells have the capac­i­ty to iden­ti­fy unique serum-derived sig­na­tures from chron­ic pain ani­mal mod­els that can prog­nos­ti­cate which ani­mals are more like­ly to devel­op PPSP. 

Project lead: Dusan Matu­si­ca
Con­tact: dusan.​matusica@​flinders.​edu.​au
Lead agency: Flinders Uni­ver­si­ty and The Hos­pi­tal Research Foun­da­tion
Esti­mat­ed project time­line: Feb 2023 — Dec 2024

Deter­mi­na­tion of the cel­lu­lar com­po­si­tion of human dor­sal root gan­glia (DRG)

Descrip­tion of struc­tur­al and ultra­struc­tur­al fea­tures of human DRG and cre­ation of a lipid pro­file for human DRG using mass spec­trom­e­try imaging.

Key issue:

The cel­lu­lar com­po­si­tion of dor­sal root gan­glia (DRG) remains large­ly unknown despite their impor­tance as key tar­gets for ther­a­pies. We lack clear knowl­edge about the spe­cif­ic cell types present in human DRGs, their loca­tions with­in the gan­glia, and how they inter­act with each other.

One mode of com­mu­ni­ca­tion involves lipids such as prostaglandins or sphin­golipids, which func­tion as intra­cel­lu­lar or extra­cel­lu­lar mes­sen­gers and have been asso­ci­at­ed with var­i­ous sig­nalling sys­tems relat­ed to pain. How­ev­er, their pres­ence with­in spe­cif­ic cell types in human DRGs and their over­all abun­dance in these gan­glia have yet to be deter­mined.

Expect­ed outcomes:

Our pri­ma­ry objec­tive is to gen­er­ate a com­pre­hen­sive struc­tur­al and ultra­struc­tur­al map of cell types with­in human dor­sal root gan­glia (DRG). Addi­tion­al­ly, we aim to estab­lish a lipid map that cor­re­lates with these spe­cif­ic cell types. This approach will help to deter­mine the intri­cate inter­ac­tions between var­i­ous DRG cell types, includ­ing macrophages and satel­lite cells. More­over, we will focus on iden­ti­fy­ing crit­i­cal ultra­struc­tur­al com­po­nents such as tight junc­tions in cap­il­lary endothe­lial cells to inves­ti­gate bar­ri­er func­tions with­in human DRG.

By com­bin­ing the detailed cel­lu­lar and lipid pro­file, we pro­vide the basis for a bet­ter under­stand­ing of noci­cep­tive sig­nalling path­ways in human DRG. In addi­tion, the data will pro­vide a basis for the devel­op­ment of ther­a­pies tar­get­ing indi­vid­ual cell types.

Project lead: Rain­er Haber­berg­er
Con­tact: rainer.​haberberger@​adelaide.​edu.​au
Lead agency: The Uni­ver­si­ty of Ade­laide
Esti­mat­ed project time­line: Oct 2023 — Jul 2025

Pain Rev­o­lu­tion Local Pain Edu­ca­tor Project

The Local Pain Edu­ca­tor Pro­gram is an inno­v­a­tive health pro­mo­tion ini­tia­tive, work­ing to embed capac­i­ty to make changes at the grass­root lev­el in rur­al and region­al Aus­tralia. The pro­gram uses a whole-of-com­mu­ni­ty approach (clin­i­cians, peo­ple liv­ing with pain and the gen­er­al pub­lic) to embed best evi­dence prac­tice and facil­i­tate self-man­age­ment for pain care.

Key issue:

Chron­ic pain is arguably the most bur­den­some health issue fac­ing rur­al Aus­tralia and it is one of the most dif­fi­cult con­di­tions to treat. Research indi­cates that 80% of Aus­tralians in chron­ic pain are not receiv­ing best prac­tice treat­ment, and are ​‘lost in the sea’ of treat­ment with end­less health pro­fes­sion­als. This ulti­mate­ly leads to poor phys­i­cal and men­tal health out­comes, for peo­ple suffering.

Expect­ed outcomes:

The Local Pain Edu­ca­tor Pro­gram aims to build health work­force capac­i­ty in rur­al and region­al Aus­tralia and grad­u­al­ly shift con­sumer expec­ta­tions and com­mu­ni­ty norms around pain and pain management.

Project lead: Abbie Nor­rish
Con­tact: abbie.​norrish@​painrevolution.​org
Lead agency: Pain Rev­o­lu­tion, Uni­ver­si­ty of South Aus­tralia
Esti­mat­ed project time­line: Jul 2023 — Jun 2024

Pre­dic­tors of Hos­pi­tal­i­sa­tion for Non-Spe­cif­ic Low Back Pain

This research audit is inves­ti­gat­ing the pre­dic­tors of hos­pi­tal­i­sa­tion for non-spe­cif­ic low back pain in peo­ple pre­sent­ing to South Aus­tralian pub­lic emer­gency departments.

Key issue:

Clin­i­cal guide­lines rec­om­mend man­age­ment of non-spe­cif­ic low back pain in pri­ma­ry care, yet the demand for hos­pi­tal ser­vices includ­ing emer­gency depart­ments con­tin­ues to grow. Exclud­ing seri­ous pathol­o­gy, hos­pi­tals are not ide­al places to man­age non-spe­cif­ic low back pain. This is known to lead to unnec­es­sary spinal imag­ing, pre­scrip­tion of strong opi­oid anal­ge­sia, and hos­pi­tal­i­sa­tions with­out improv­ing clin­i­cal out­comes, as well as over­all delays for peo­ple requir­ing urgent hos­pi­tal care.

Expect­ed outcomes:

Iden­ti­fy­ing the pre­dic­tors of hos­pi­tal­i­sa­tion for non-spe­cif­ic low back pain with­in the South Aus­tralian con­text will reveal oppor­tu­ni­ties to improve clin­i­cal care, health resource allo­ca­tion, and hos­pi­tal avoid­ance strate­gies, whilst strength­en­ing part­ner­ships across pri­ma­ry care and hos­pi­tal health sys­tems to bet­ter sup­port peo­ple man­age the con­di­tion with­in their local communities.

Project lead: Joseph Orlan­do
Con­tact: Joseph.​Orlando@​sa.​gov.​au
Lead agency: CAL­HN, Uni­ver­si­ty of South Aus­tralia, Com­mis­sion on Excel­lence and Inno­va­tion in Health
Esti­mat­ed project time­line: Jul 2022 — Mar 2024

Devel­op­ment of a noci­cep­tive mea­sur­ing device capa­ble of dif­fer­en­ti­at­ing chron­ic pain states

This study aims to cre­ate an biosen­sor ​“neu­ron-on-chip” cell-based device with the machine learn­ing dri­ven capac­i­ty to mea­sure and dis­crim­i­nate between var­i­ous chron­ic types by analysing serum sam­ples from ani­mal mod­els of chron­ic pain and human patients.

Key issue:

Abil­i­ty to objec­tive­ly dis­crim­i­nate between mul­ti­ple clin­i­cal rel­e­vant chron­ic pain times using serum analysis.

Expect­ed outcomes:

A pro­to­type microflu­idic point of care tast­ing device that can facil­i­tate objec­tive dis­crim­i­na­tion of most com­mon chron­ic pain types and aid in diag­nos­tic accu­ra­cy, espe­cial­ly for non ver­bal patients.

Project lead: Dusan Matu­si­ca
Con­tact: dusan.​matusica@​flinders.​edu.​au
Lead agency: Flinders Uni­ver­si­ty / NHM­RC
Esti­mat­ed project time­line: Jan 2022 — Dec 2025

Iden­ti­fy­ing Social Fac­tors that Strat­i­fy Health Oppor­tu­ni­ties and Out­comes (ISSHOOs) in Pain Research

Iden­ti­fy­ing Social Fac­tors that Strat­i­fy Health Oppor­tu­ni­ties and Out­comes (ISSHOOs) in Pain Research is an inter­na­tion­al, mul­ti-stage, stake-hold­er engaged project that aims to devel­op a min­i­mum dataset to guide the rou­tine col­lec­tion of equi­ty rel­e­vant data. It will be rec­om­mend­ed for use in all human pain research. Project and team details can be found at www​.isshoos​.org

Key issue:

Improv­ing the col­lec­tion and report­ing of equi­ty rel­e­vant data in pain research

Expect­ed outcomes:

A min­i­mum dataset that will be wide­ly endorsed by key stake­hold­ers (includ­ing pain jour­nals and fund­ing organ­i­sa­tions) and broad­ly implemented.

Project lead: Emma Kar­ran
Con­tact: emma.​karran@​unisa.​edu.​au
Lead agency: IIM­PACT in Health, Uni­ver­si­ty of South Aus­tralia
Esti­mat­ed project time­line: Feb 2022 — Oct 2024