As our world becomes increasingly digital, our healthcare services will adapt and take advantage of the opportunties this opens up. At the same time, our patients will continue to expect human contact. With the average increase in life expectancy, as well as new treatments being available to cure or control different diseases, comorbidities are becoming more and more prevalent in most chronic diseases. As we are well aware, stress, insomnia, and depression are all comorbidities relevant to pain. Taking into account these issues, the theme for the #EFIC2022 Congress in Dublin, Ireland is “Targeting pain and its comorbidities in the Digital Age“.
Digitalised services refer to methods of delivering healthcare via internet and mobile devices. They may be an ideal solution to increase access and reach of evidence-based health interventions. Digital pain management interventions also have the potential to decrease the pressure on healthcare resources by encouraging more self-management. Digitalised services have especially increased in importance since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Available evidence shows that educational, exercise, and psychological approaches delivered through a computer or a mobile phone device (such as applications and text messages), are as equally effective as face-to-face approaches for managing pain intensity and disability, including for people with chronic low back pain, and hip and knee osteoarthritis.
These presentations will focus on digitalised services in the management of pain and comorbidities at #EFIC2022:
| Title | Speaker | Time |
| Wednesday 27 April 2022 | ||
| Agile development of a digital exposure treatment for youth with chronic musculoskeletal pain: A participatory co-design approach | Lauren Harrison (United States) |
13.20 – 13.40 (20 mins) |
| Efficacy of digital interventions for paediatric pain: Optimizing treatment through tailoring for sleep problems | Tonya Palermo (United States) |
13.40 – 14.00 (20 mins) |
| Evaluating successful implementation of a digital intervention for paediatric pain: Stakeholder perspectives | Rocío de la Vega (Spain) |
14.00 – 14.20 (20 mins) |
| Evidence on the surgical and e-health management of LBP and its comorbidities | Manuela L. Ferreira (Australia) |
15.20 – 15.45 (25 mins) |
| Thursday 28 April 2022 | ||
| Pain science education in the digital age: Presentation of a new, app-based program for breast cancer survivors with persistent pain | An De Groef (Belgium) |
15.20 – 15.45 (25 mins) |
| Friday 29 April 2022 | ||
| Review of current evidence for telehealth interventions for older people’s chronic pain | Margaret Dunham (United Kingdom) |
09.30 – 09.55 (25 mins) |
| Developing interactive solutions for the self-management of chronic pain | Fotios Spyridonis (United Kingdom) |
09.55 – 10.20 (25 mins) |
| Acceptability- barriers/facilitators, aging populations & technology | Cary Reid (United States) |
10.20 – 10.45 (25 mins) |
| Digitalised services in health care | Visa Honkanen (Finland) |
12.30 – 12.50 (20 mins) |
| Digitalised services in the management of pain and its comorbidities | Rikard Wicksell (Sweden) |
12.50 – 13.10 (20 mins) |
| Stress, pain, somatic illness and e-health | Andrea Evers (Netherlands) |
13.10 – 13.30 (20 mins) |