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Improving access to treatment for chronic pain

TDM GROWTH PARTNERS recently teamed with HEARTS AND MINDS INVESTMENTS LTD to partner with PAIN FOUNDATION LTD in the consortium led by PMRI’s Professor Michael Nicholas to create a leading-edge online education platform to facilitate the rollout of its pain management training package. Here are excerpts from TDM’s latest “Impact Report”

Timeframe: Sept 2021 to September 2023

Project: Digital training platform for chronic pain management

Context: Chronic pain affects 1 in 5 Australian adults aged 45, costing the economy an estimated $139b in 2018 and having a profound effect on quality of life. Many health professionals lack the knowledge and skills to deal with these patients effectively, usually resorting to prescription of medication. This presents serious risks to the patient and is not ideal in the long-term.

What: PMRI is creating a digital education platform to provide health care practitioners around Australia with the knowledge and skills they need to manage patients with chronic pain. Delivery of the digital platform is underway and expected to be ready for release in June 2024.

Key program results in relation to milestones/outcomes:
– Translation of content from face-to-face style into a digital model is complete.
– Early testing and evaluation began in 2H 2023 and extend into 1H 2024.

WHAT‘S GONE WELL
Collaboration: Members of the project team were part of the Curtin University study “Listen to me, learn from me” examining experiences of people living with chronic
pain and those who treat them. These learnings will be carried over to the digital platform to ensure it meets stakeholder needs.

KEY CHALLENGES AND HOW THEY‘RE BEING ADDRESSED
Maximising impact: No budget was included to resource a communications and dissemination strategy. TDM providing additional funds to facilitate the hiring of a
communications specialist to ensure the platform has a successful launch with maximum reach.