Successes and lessons learned from a mobile health behavior intervention to reduce pain and improve health in older adults with obesity and chronic pain: a qualitative study.

Introduction: Chronic pain is a prevalent issue among older adults in the United States that impairs quality of life. Physical activity has emerged as a cost-effective and non-pharmacological treatment for chronic pain, offering benefits such as improved physical functioning, weight loss, and enhanced mood. However, promoting physical activity in older individuals with chronic pain is challenging, given the cyclical relationship between pain and sedentary behavior.

Perioperative pain optimization in the age of the opioid epidemic.

Purpose Of Review: The opioid epidemic remains a constant and increasing threat to our society with overdoses and overdose deaths rising significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Growing evidence suggests a link between perioperative opioid use, postoperative opioid prescribing, and the development of opioid use disorder (OUD). As a result, strategies to better optimize pain management during the perioperative period are urgently needed.

Associations Between Patterns of Daily Stepping Behavior, Health-Related Quality of Life, and Pain Symptoms Among Older Adults with Chronic Pain: A Secondary Analysis of Two Randomized Controlled Trials.

Purpose: One's amount, intensity, and distribution of physical activity may have implications for whether it has positive or negative effects on pain and quality of life for older adults living with chronic pain. Thus, we investigated baseline patterns of stepping related to pain symptoms and health-related quality of life at baseline and over a 12-week follow-up period.

Patients And Methods: Participants were low-active older adults (69.

Local Culture and Community Through a Digital Lens: Viewpoint on Designing and Implementing a Virtual Second Look Event for Residency Applicants.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic altered how residency interviews occur. Despite 2 years of web-based interviews, these are still perceived as inferior to in-person experiences. Showcasing a program and location is critical for recruitment; however, it is difficult to highlight the program's location and community digitally.

Associations between patterns of physical activity, pain intensity, and interference among older adults with chronic pain: a secondary analysis of two randomized controlled trials.

Clinical management of chronic pain often includes recommendations to engage in physical activity (PA), though there are little data on the interplay between pain symptoms and key aspects of PA participation (e.g., intensity and bout duration) among older adults.

The 2017 North Carolina STOP Act is Associated With an Accelerated Decrease in Opioid Dispensing: A Statewide Analysis, 2013-2019.

Background: This study aimed to: 1) quantify the dispensing and days' supply of opioid prescriptions prior to and after the NC STOP Act went into effect among Medicare Part D beneficiaries; 2) evaluate how the STOP Act impacted physician assistant and nurse practitioner opioid prescribing; and 3) evaluate whether the NC STOP Act is associated with reductions in opioid prescriptions' days' supply among Medicare Part D beneficiaries.

Methods: This was a secondary analysis of Medicare Part D Public Use Files for 2013-2019. Only North Carolina providers and select Schedule II (CII) and III (CIII) drugs and tramadol (CV) were included in the analysis.

Five Strategies Leaders in Academic Medicine Can Implement Now to Enhance Gender Equity.

Abundant disparities for women in medicine contribute to many women physicians considering leaving medicine. There is a strong financial and ethical case for leaders in academic medicine to focus on strategies to improve retention. This article focuses on five immediate actions that leaders can take to enhance gender equity and improve career satisfaction for all members of the workplace.

Racism exposure and trauma accumulation perpetuate pain inequities-advocating for change (RESTORATIVE): A conceptual model.

Experiences of racism occur across a continuum from denial of services to more subtle forms of discrimination and exact a significant toll. These multilevel systems of oppression accumulate as chronic stressors that cause psychological injury conceptualized as racism-based traumatic stress (RBTS). RBTS has overlapping symptoms with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with the added burden that threats are constantly present.

A biopsychosocial approach assessing pain indicators among Black men.

Introduction: The lack of empirical evidence documenting the pain experience of Black men may be the result of social messaging that men are to project strength and avoid any expression of emotion or vulnerability. This avoidant behavior however, often comes too late when illnesses/symptoms are more aggressive and/or diagnosed at a later stage. This highlights two key issues - the willingness to acknowledge pain and wanting to seek medical attention when experiencing pain.

A remote group-mediated daylong physical activity intervention for older adults with chronic pain: Results of the MORPH-II randomized pilot trial.

Chronic pain is a debilitating condition that affects many older adults who often have limited access to non-pharmacological pain management strategies. One potentially effective and novel lifestyle medicine for chronic pain involves increasing physical activity through frequent movement across the day, thereby also decreasing the presence of extended sedentary bouts. The MORPH-II pilot randomized controlled refinement trial iterated on the MORPH trial, which was a first-of-its-kind group-mediated daylong physical activity (DPA) intervention for older adults with chronic pain rooted in social cognitive and self-determination theories and supported by an mHealth toolset designed to foster social connection and awareness of physical activity patterns.

Leadership roles and initiatives for diversity and inclusion in academic anesthesiology departments.

Unlabelled: A cultural change in medicine has placed a renewed focus on the importance of a diverse and inclusive healthcare workforce. The methods employed by anesthesiology departments in pursuit of diversity and inclusion needs to be examined.

Objective: This study's objective was to assess the frequency of established leadership infrastructures and initiatives that promote diversity and inclusion within academic anesthesiology departments.

Designing Actionable Solutions and Curriculum for Pain Disparities Education.

The Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) require medical schools to teach their students how to recognize and work toward eliminating health disparities. However, time constraints and a dearth of guidance for educators in teaching pain disparities curricula pose significant challenges. Herein we describe successes and lessons learned after designing, implementing, and evaluating an innovative pain disparities curriculum that was embedded in a longitudinal health equity curriculum for third year medical school students at an academic institution.

Building on Lessons Learned in a Mobile Intervention to Reduce Pain and Improve Health (MORPH): Protocol for the MORPH-II Trial.

Background: Engaging in sufficient levels of physical activity, guarding against sustained sitting, and maintaining a healthy body weight represent important lifestyle strategies for managing older adults' chronic pain. Our first Mobile Health Intervention to Reduce Pain and Improve Health (MORPH) randomized pilot study demonstrated that a partially remote group-mediated diet and daylong activity intervention (ie, a focus on moving often throughout the day) can lead to improved physical function, weight loss, less pain intensity, and fewer minutes of sedentary time. We also identified unique delivery challenges that limited the program's scalability and potential efficacy.

A Mobile Health Behavior Intervention to Reduce Pain and Improve Health in Older Adults With Obesity and Chronic Pain: The MORPH Pilot Trial.

Unlabelled: Chronic, multisite pain is a common phenomenon in aging and is associated with a host of negative health outcomes. It is a complex and multifaceted condition that may be exacerbated by weight gain and long periods of inactivity. Unfortunately, older adults suffering from chronic pain have unique barriers limiting access to center-based behavior change interventions.

Implementation of Individualized Pain Care Plans Decreases Length of Stay and Hospital Admission Rates for High Utilizing Adults with Sickle Cell Disease.

Objective: Patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) face inconsistent effective analgesic management, leading to high inpatient healthcare utilization and significant financial burden for healthcare institutions. Current evidence does not provide guidance for inpatient management of acute pain in adults with sickle cell disease. We conducted a retrospective analysis of a longitudinal cohort quality improvement project to characterize the role of individualized care plans on improving patient care and reducing financial burden in high healthcare-utilizing patients with SCD-related pain.

A Pain eHealth Platform for Engaging Obese, Older Adults with Chronic Low Back Pain in Nonpharmacological Pain Treatments: Protocol for a Pilot Feasibility Study.

Background: Low back pain is a costly healthcare problem and the leading cause of disability among adults in the United States. Primary care providers urgently need effective ways to deliver evidence-based, nonpharmacological therapies for chronic low back pain. Guidelines published by several government and national organizations have recommended nonpharmacological and nonopioid pharmacological therapies for low back pain.

A Mobile Health Intervention to Reduce Pain and Improve Health (MORPH) in Older Adults With Obesity: Protocol for the MORPH Trial.

Background: Chronic pain is a complex, age-related health issue that affects both physical functioning and quality of life. Because the impact of chronic pain is worsened by obesity and inactivity, nonpharmacological interventions that promote movement, reduce sitting, and aid in weight loss are needed to help manage pain symptoms among older adults with chronic pain.

Objective: The Mobile Intervention to Reduce Pain and Improve Health (MORPH) pilot trial aims to develop and test the feasibility and acceptability of a novel, patient-centered intervention to reduce chronic pain and improve physical functioning in older adults, leveraging the combination of telecoaching and individually adaptive mHealth tools to decrease both body mass and sedentary behavior.

The Influence of Pain Severity and Interference on Satisfaction with Pain Management among Middle-Aged and Older Adults.

. Health outcomes are often contingent on how effective the individual is able to manage existent illness-related symptoms. This is all the more relevant among chronic pain patients.

Interventional Techniques for Management of Pain in Older Adults.

Chronic pain in older patients is often treated with pain medications, physical rehabilitation, interventional pain management, and/or psychological interventions. The administration of pain medications is the most common form of chronic pain treatment. Physiologic changes in older adults make them more susceptible to the potential side effects of oral pain medications, especially opioids.

Treatment of posttraumatic supraorbital neuralgia using pulsed radiofrequency ablation.

Supraorbital neuralgia, although an uncommon disorder, is the most frequent extracranial neuralgia of the trigeminal nerve. There are several small case studies reporting treatment outcomes offered by various types of medical management and even surgical treatment. We present the case of a 36-year-old female patient who developed debilitating supraorbital neuralgia after a concussion and unsuccessful medical management.

Preoperative assessment of the older surgical patient: honing in on geriatric syndromes.

Nearly 50% of Americans will have an operation after the age of 65 years. Traditional preoperative anesthesia consultations capture only some of the information needed to identify older patients (defined as ≥65 years of age) undergoing elective surgery who are at increased risk for postoperative complications, prolonged hospital stays, and delayed or hampered functional recovery. As a catalyst to this review, we compared traditional risk scores (eg, cardiac-focused) to geriatric-specific risk measures from two older female patients seen in our preoperative clinic who were scheduled for elective, robotic-assisted hysterectomies.

Addressing the mandate for hand-off education: a focused review and recommendations for anesthesia resident curriculum development and evaluation.

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education requires that residency programs teach residents about handoffs and ensure their competence in this communication skill. Development of hand-off curricula for anesthesia residency programs is hindered by the paucity of evidence regarding how to conduct, teach, and evaluate handoffs in the various settings where anesthesia practitioners work. This narrative review draws from literature in anesthesia and other disciplines to provide recommendations for anesthesia resident hand-off curriculum development and evaluation.