JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Digital therapeutics have been increasingly used to improve behavioral healthcare but are underutilized in primary care settings.

Objective:

This study explored primary care providers’ challenges and strategies in chronic pain management to identify needs and practice gaps for future development of chronic pain-related digital therapeutics tailored to primary care settings.

Methods:

Using a human-centered design approach, qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with healthcare providers (N = 11) recruited from four primary care clinics in Washington and Colorado between July and October 2021. Providers shared their goals and priorities in chronic pain management, experiences with challenges and strategies used to care for patients, and their perceptions of applying digital therapeutics in clinical practice. Transcripts were analyzed using a thematic analysis approach.

Results:

Our study found four themes related to provider needs: patient-provider alliance, team-based care, tracking and monitoring, and social determinants of health. Providers desired resources to improve chronic pain conversations, pain education and counseling, and goal setting with patients. Providers needed a greater accessibility to multidisciplinary care team consultations and non-pharmacological pain treatments. Healthcare system infrastructure was needed for providers to systematically track and monitor patients’ pain and provide wraparound health and social services for underserved patients.

Conclusions:

Leveraging digital therapeutics in a feasible, appropriate and acceptable way to aid primary care providers in chronic pain management may require multimodal features that address provider needs at an individual care and clinic/system level.