Pain medicine : the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine
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Multicenter Study
Improving Pain Care with Project ECHO in Community Health Centers.
Pain is an extremely common complaint in primary care, and patient outcomes are often suboptimal. This project evaluated the impact of Project ECHO Pain videoconference case-based learning sessions on knowledge and quality of pain care in two Federally Qualified Health Centers. ⋯ Pain is an extremely common and challenging problem, particularly among vulnerable patients such as those cared for at the more than 1,200 Federally Qualified Health Centers in the United States. In this study, attendance at weekly Project ECHO Pain sessions not only improved knowledge and self-efficacy, but also altered prescribing and referral patterns, suggesting that knowledge acquired during ECHO sessions translated into practice changes.
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Oral and injected steroids are used commonly in the treatment of cervical radicular pain despite a paucity of data demonstrating their efficacy. The purpose of this study is to assess whether the response to orally administered steroids among patients with acute cervical radicular pain who develop recurrent pain is associated with their subsequent response to cervical epidural steroid injections. ⋯ Patients can be reassured that they may experience pain reduction after a cervical epidural steroid injection even if oral steroid therapy was not effective. The majority of patients treated for cervical radicular pain with epidural steroid injection have reduced or absent pain for at least six months after treatment.
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The objective of this project was to develop core competencies for education on opioids and addiction to be used in all Pennsylvania medical schools. ⋯ These competencies will be incorporated into the educational process at all Pennsylvania medical schools. It is hoped that these curriculum changes will improve student knowledge and attitudes in these areas, thus improving patient outcomes.