A comprehensive review of telehealth for pain management: where we are and the way ahead
Abstract
Pain is generally undertreated in the United States, owing to a number of barriers including geographic distance from specialty treatment providers; functional disability that limits mobility; treatment-related stigma; economic limitations; and educational barriers. Pain undertreatment exacerbates pain chronicity and emotional disruption that can significantly erode a pain patient's quality of life, and there is widespread agreement that pain care must evolve to address this significant problem. The growing field of telehealth (defined for the purposes of this paper as technology that allows for distance interaction between providers and/or patients) offers a novel opportunity to expand pain assessment, consultation, and treatment services beyond the walls of the specialty pain clinic, but there is limited availability of resources describing how to best use this technology to improve access to care. A recent literature review (September 2011) using universally endorsed MeSH search criteria revealed only 32 MEDLINE references focusing on telehealth for pain. This is surprising in light of the very large number of references covering telehealth (14,164 references) and pain (104,564 references), respectively. Of the studies available, there are very few randomized trials of telehealth pain care and only one general overview of e-health and chronic pain, which dedicates just a few paragraphs to telehealth. This manuscript represents one of the first comprehensive reviews of the current state of telehealth and pain management research and practice. The goals are to provide a rationale for the potential benefit of telehealth-based pain management services; describe the various applications of telehealth technology for pain management; orient the reader to cost models for telehealth; present examples of services in place; and offer recommendations for future research based on the current state of knowledge.
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Many individuals have difficulty accessing pain services due to factors such as age, geographical location, and/or lack of trained therapists, contributing to under-treatment of pain.
“Many individuals also have difficulty accessing pain services due to factors such as age, geographical location and/or a lack of trained therapists, all of which contributes to the under-treatment of pain (McGeary et al., 2012; van Beugen et al., 2014).”
From Increasing access to pain management: Feasibility of a self-compassion psychoeducational website using a minimally monitored delivery model (2021) · cites this paper as McGeary et al., 2012
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- Authors
- McGeary, D. D., McGeary, C. A., & Gatchel, R. J.
- Affiliations
- The University of Texas at San Antonio Health Science Center (US)
- The University of Texas at Arlington (US)
- Corresponding author
- McGeary, Donald D.
- Venue
- Pain Practice
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2012-02-05
- Volume
- 12
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 570-577
- ISSN
- 1530-7085 (ISSN-L)
- 1533-2500
- OpenAlex
- W1592719392
- Cited by
- 101
- References
- 36
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 4 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 8 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 12 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 1.45
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Pain Practice (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Telemedicine and Telehealth Implementation
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pharmacology › Musculoskeletal pain and rehabilitation
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine › Pain Management and Opioid Use
- Keywords
- telemedicine, pain management, chronic pain, undertreatment of pain, health care access, e-health, quality of life
- MeSH terms
- Humans, Telemedicine, Pain Clinics, Evidence-Based Medicine, Pain Management
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