Medical Specialties
Help Patients Navigate Chronic Pain Management.
Pain can change sleep, work and the activities that make a day feel normal.
PATHS helps healthcare organizations turn clinical expertise into actionable patient journeys, giving patients and caregivers clear guidance while providing care teams with visibility into engagement, understanding, and progress.
Living With Pain Means Managing More Than a Pain Score.
Pain can change sleep, work and the activities that make a day feel normal. Care between visits needs to connect the treatment plan with what a person can actually do.
24.3%1
U.S. adults reporting chronic pain in 2023
8.5%1
U.S. adults whose chronic pain frequently limited life or work in 2023
The Problem
In the 2023 National Health Interview Survey, 24.3% of U.S. adults reported chronic pain. For 8.5% of adults, chronic pain frequently limited life or work activities. The impact extends well beyond the time spent in a clinic.1
The Cost to Care Teams
The ESCAPE trial combined 12 weeks of medication review and pain self-management with 12 weeks of cognitive behavioral therapy. Nurse care managers delivered the intervention, illustrating the continuing clinical work behind a structured pain program.2
When Pain Keeps Limiting Daily Life
High-impact chronic pain is defined by frequent limits on life or work. Treatment needs to account for function and participation alongside pain intensity; the national survey does not show which limitations are preventable by a particular program.1
What Better Support Can Do
In ESCAPE, 241 veterans with chronic musculoskeletal pain were randomized to stepped care or usual care. At nine months, stepped care produced greater improvements in pain-related disability, interference and severity. The program included clinical treatment and therapy, so education alone cannot be credited with those results.2
Sources
Healthcare teams have a critical responsibility to educate and prepare patients for that journey. But once patients leave the clinical setting, how do we know they're ready?
Do they understand their care plan? Can they apply what they've learned? Are they following through? Where do they need additional support?
Preparing patients for the journey is essential. Knowing how they're managing it creates the opportunity to improve care.
Chronic Pain Management: From Clinical Expertise to Actionable Guidance.
Understand
Education and knowledge
Explain the pain-management options and resources chosen by the person's care team.
Take Action
Tasks, decisions, follow-through
Help patients prepare goals and questions for conversations about daily function and care.
Manage Care
Medications, appointments, self-care
Keep education about the agreed plan and follow-up available between appointments.
Demonstrate
Assessments and engagement evidence
Use assessments and engagement evidence to identify where guidance needs clarification.
Meet Rosa.She Stays Active and at Work With Persistent Back Pain.
Follow Rosa through an illustrative seven-Step Path. A hospital could use this structure to organize education its pain care team selects, set function goals together and help patients plan for difficult days.
Understanding Persistent Pain Path
Illustrative person (AI-generated). Illustrative educational Path. Completion does not establish a clinical outcome.
Read the Path Steps
- Video: Understand her pain
How long-lasting pain works, and why her care focuses on daily function as well as pain.
- Form: Set her function goals
Rosa chooses goals that matter to her, like a full workday or better sleep, to agree with her team.
- Video: Move with confidence
Exercises from her physical therapist, increased gradually as she is able.
- Audio: Pace her day
Easing off activities that worsen her pain, then increasing activity gradually as she is able.
- Virtual Event: Build coping skills
A session her care team offers on coping skills such as relaxation and problem solving.
- Document: Plan for flare days
Her team’s plan for flare days: heat or cold, gentle movement instead of bed rest, her medicine instructions and when to call.
- Quiz: Know when to get help
Practice which changes to raise at her next visit and which need same-day care, or emergency care if her team’s plan says so, such as new leg weakness, numbness, trouble urinating or fever.
Every Workflow Should Save the Health System Time and Money.
Assign a value to the Understanding Persistent Pain Path and see the results.
Path Value Estimation
minutes
per year
How many times your team already does this workflow each year.
per hour
65.5staff hours saved per year
$2,291estimated value per year
Change the assumptions above to see your estimate of time and money saved.
CREATE
The care team builds a Understanding Persistent Pain Path once.
Pain management clinicians turn the education they repeat with every new patient into a structured Path and assign it a value of 21 minutes of staff education time saved per patient.
ENGAGE
Patients like Rosa learn and act.
Each year, 187 patients like Rosa start a pain care plan with the Understanding Persistent Pain Path, saving 21 minutes of education time each.
KNOW
Data shows the impact.
That adds up to 3,927 minutes (65.5 hours) of staff time, worth an estimated $2,291 a year at $35.00 an hour.
IMPROVE
Insights improve the next Path.
Engagement, knowledge checks and questions show where pain education was clear or confusing, so the care team can refine it for the next patient.
Every Chronic Pain Management Journey Creates an Opportunity to Improve the Next.
Estimates are illustrative and use the assumptions above. They are not measured results.
Rosa's Experience Becomes Health System Intelligence.
Rosa's care doesn't stop at one Path. As she works with her team, the health system provides a Path for each part of her plan: understanding persistent pain, her goals for daily life, treatment options, movement, and sleep and coping. Each Path Rosa completes also shows her care team what she engaged with, what she understood and what she still had questions about.
Movement Confidence Path
Rosa can revisit the movement guidance her rehabilitation team provided whenever she needs it. The steps patients revisit most show the team where the guidance can be clearer.
Support at Work Path
Rosa identifies work-related needs to discuss with her team. The barriers patients report show the team where to offer practical help.
Progress Reflection Path
Rosa tracks daily function and questions between visits. That helps the team adjust her plan around what matters to her.
The more the health system knows about each patient's experience and journey, the better it can make its workflows. What Rosa and every other patient engage with, understand and ask about becomes health system intelligence: the team learns from every patient and refines each Path, so the next patient's experience is better. Clearer Paths mean fewer repeat calls and less time re-teaching the same education, and that saves time and money across the health system.
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Start With One Journey. Learn From Every Experience.
Improving chronic pain care doesn't require changing every workflow at once.
Start with a patient journey that matters to your organization. Build a structured approach, understand how patients and caregivers engage, and use what you learn to improve the experience.