Reducing Disparities in the Treatment of Chronic Pain Using an Innovative mHealth Tool

During the first 4 months, conduct a science café targeting 30 individuals/families who live with chronic pain and reside in Boston's low-income, ethnically diverse neighborhoods, in order to: a) gather feedback about how to tailor the OWL curriculum based on their needs and preferences, and b) identify potential enhancements to the mobile technology to improve ease of use. For the science cafe, the investigators will use social media (facebook, twitter, listservs, etc.) to invite the community to meet for a two-hour dialog. . Each participant will be paid for attending, refreshments will be served, and a small thank you gift will be provided. Dr. Gardiner will begin the science café by giving an overview of chronic pain in the US. The moderator will ask the participants questions about how chronic pain impacts their communities and how technology might help address it.

A trained qualitative research assistant will be transcribe the science cafe and the transcripts will be analyzed using qualitative methods.

Pilot Cohort Study During the first ten months, the investigators will pilot, using pre-post measures, with 40 patients (2 groups of 20 patients) with OWL. The main outcome is pain impact (pain severity, pain interference, physical function) and pain associated outcomes (e.g., depression, anxiety, depression, fatigue, sleep disturbance, ability to participate in social roles and activities, and pain self-efficacy).

The target population includes low-income adults >18 years old who self-report: chronic musculoskeletal (extremity, joint, back, neck) pain for at least 3 months, with an average pain intensity for the previous week >4 on a 0 to 10 numerical rating scale. The investigators also require English fluency sufficient to follow instructions. Exclusion criteria include: active or planned worker's compensation, active substance abuse, psychosis, disability or personal injury claims, and known pregnancy. Participants who do not currently have access to the internet are also excluded.

The investigators will recruit patients from 14 Boston area Community Health Centers and the community of Boston Medical Center by reaching out to primary care providers for referrals. Based upon previous pilot experiences, the investigators do not anticipate any difficulty in recruiting for the pilot groups. The investigators will recruit from BMC's primary care practices and several of its 14 affiliated Community Health Centers located in Boston. Participants will receive $50 for their involvement. Based upon this initial referral, if an individual appears to be eligible for participation, he/she will be invited to meet in person with the research assistant. At this visit, eligibility is verified; the study is discussed at length with all questions answered to the participant's satisfaction; and if the patient desires, the patient enrolls by signing the informed consent. For the study, all recruitment materials will be IRB-approved prior to dissemination.