Telementoring for improving primary care provider knowledge and competence in managing chronic pain: A randomised controlled trial.

Introduction Primary care providers are frequently unprepared to manage chronic pain adequately due in part to insufficient professional training. This study evaluated the effect of a telementoring intervention on knowledge and perceived competence related to chronic pain management. Methods The study design was a cluster randomised controlled trial. Primary care clinics that were part of the University of Washington Medicine Telehealth network were the unit of randomization. Primary care providers comprised the intervention group ( n = 23) and the control group ( n = 18). Providers in the intervention group attended telementoring sessions through the TelePain programme and presented patient cases at the beginning and end of their enrolled patients' 12-week study period. TelePain sessions included a didactic presentation and telementoring for specific patient cases by a panel of pain specialists from the disciplines of pain medicine, internal medicine, anaesthesiology, rehabilitation medicine, psychiatry, addiction medicine, nursing and complementary and integrative pain management. Providers' baseline and end-of-study knowledge and perceived competence in managing chronic pain were assessed by three questionnaires: Knowledge and Attitudes Survey Regarding Pain, the KnowPain-12 and the Perceived Competence Scale. Results Knowledge (Z = -0.34, p = 0.97 (Knowledge and Attitudes Survey Regarding Pain) and Z = 0.49, p = 0.62 (KnowPain-12)) and perceived competence (Z = -0.74, p = 0.46) did not increase for providers in the intervention group compared with providers in the control group. These providers attended on average 12.5 sessions (range 0-31) while participating in the study. Discussion Further research is recommended to establish the effectiveness of this telementoring intervention.