Addressing Chronic Pain: A New Pathway to Better Patient Management and Hybrid Care

According to the NIH, approximately 40 million adults in the US live with chronic MSK pain. Chronic pain is persistent, and nearly two-thirds of those who report chronic pain are still living with it a year later. Chronic pain impacts people’s ability to work and perform daily self-care activities. It’s associated with higher levels of anxiety, depression, and cognitive difficulties. 

Managing patients with chronic pain is challenging, and the healthcare system as it stands today isn’t built to adequately meet the needs of these patients. Studies have shown that problems with the current approach to MSK pain range from overuse of imaging and unnecessary surgery to underuse of exercise and patient education, or worse—not referring patients to physical therapy at all.¹

Finding innovative digital tools will be critical to help the millions of MSK patients silently suffering in their homes without seeking care today. Hybrid digital care is that solution, allowing providers to see more patients and provide targeted, personalized care to help people living with chronic pain better manage their pain and find relief.

MedBridge Pathways, our new digital MSK care platform, is tackling the issue of chronic pain head on. By combining provider-centered care and innovative tools with best-in-class education that helps patients understand symptoms and lifestyle changes, Pathways helps patients experiencing chronic pain not just for a single episode of care, but for their entire care journey.

The Role of Digital MSK Care in Pain Management

Chronic pain is a complex condition that can evolve or change over time. The psychological and social effects of chronic pain make it even more important to have in-person care available to patients who need it. And because chronic pain is such a personal condition, no two patients’ experience will be exactly the same. That’s why when it comes to pain management, there’s no ‘one size fits all’ approach that will work for every patient. Unfortunately, many digital health platforms disintermediate clinicians, instead opting to put all MSK patients in a singular bucket that offers them digital-only care.

Unlike digital platforms that pull patients away from their providers, Pathways is designed to strengthen the patient-provider relationship, which is critical for addressing chronic pain. After triage, patients will be offered recommendations for care based on their condition, level of pain, and treatment preferences. These can include access to schedule an in-person PT appointment or an appointment for a primary care visit if red flags are present. However, many patients with chronic pain will be a good candidate for hybrid care through Pathways, where then the provider can make the decision on the best care plan for that patient. This includes:

Independent: Patients complete their pathway at home and are monitored by a virtual PT or case manager. This is great for patients who are looking for digital care they can do on their own or who have barriers to care such as high co-pays or long commutes.

Guided: Patients complete their pathway at home and have scheduled in-person or virtual touch points with their PT. This is great for patients who may still want to meet with their provider on a regular basis.

This variety of care options ensures that patients are receiving the right program for their required level of care, and that their pain is being managed by healthcare professionals. The patients’ provider can determine which care plan is most appropriate for their patient.

Features of Pathways That Aid in Pain Management

Evidence-Based Treatment Plans

Every pathway is biopsychosocial in design, addressing all aspects of a person’s chronic pain, and each exercise and piece of educational content is built on the latest research and clinical expertise for pain management. This education includes pain neuroscience education, which is a key part of chronic pain management. These treatment plans are built with the latest evidence-based guidance, but also leverage advanced AI and data analytics to help tailor interventions for acute and chronic pain.

Patient Engagement Tools

Pathways was built using the latest in behavioral science to encourage engagement and program adherence. By using our patient-centered platform to actively and passively engage patients between visits, they’ll become active participants in their care plan and have more opportunities to communicate any pain and difficulty between visits. This includes:

Phased Progression: New exercises and education keep patients going as they recover and help provide a sense of accomplishment as they progress.

Patient Reminders: Automated reminders bring patients back and keep care top of mind, nudging patients to adhere to their exercise plan more regularly—which is tied to better outcomes for patients with chronic MSK pain.  

Progress Tracking: Regular assessments allow patients and clinicians to track progress, including pain and difficulty, throughout their program.

Remote Therapeutic Monitoring and EMR Integration

Pathways supports hybrid care, and remote therapeutic monitoring and EMR integration are two of the most important tools that make that possible. And for patients with chronic MSK pain, continuous monitoring outside of the clinic will be vital for pain management.

Whether the patient is coming in for in-person care or not, a substantial amount of their treatment journey will be spent outside the clinic. With remote monitoring, providers or case managers can manage patient engagement and get a glimpse into how they are doing between visits, providing an opportunity for more frequent, lighter weight touch points. 

The reporting dashboard also collects organizational analytics on activation, engagement, and patient reported outcomes (PROs). That way if the patient shares that they are having pain or difficulty, the case manager can flag their provider to adjust their treatment plan in real-time, rather than having to wait for a visit to address their concern. And because Pathways offers Epic Direct and Epic MyChart integrations, providers can do all of this in their system of record.

Motion Capture Technology

MedBridge Motion Capture is a critical component of MedBridge Pathways, utilizing its 3D computer vision technology during assessments to generate deeper insights into patient ability. Capturing 53 data points across the body, MedBridge Motion Capture can be used as an extension of your staff to track patient progress and personalize patient programs anywhere. 

Providers not only get a view of the exercises their patients are performing—the AI-assisted capabilities enhance their ability to assess patients faster than ever. The attending clinician will ultimately use their expertise to make the final call on the assessment, but they’ll have more data points to help them come to an informed decision.

This motion capture technology helps enhance and streamline the assessment process. Patients can perform motion capture assessments in the comfort of their own homes while the motion capture gathers important data points like range of motion, functional mobility, and balance compared against gold standards that the provider can later use in their evaluation. A dozen such evaluations could be happening in patients’ homes on their schedule, instead of having to compete with each other for a single time slot in the PT’s busy schedule.

Clinical Benefits of Using Pathways

Improved efficiency

Faster triage and accurate prioritization of patients helps make more time for clinicians to spend with high-acuity patients. Tools like motion capture and AI-assisted tech enhance accuracy in diagnosis and treatment planning, while the reporting dashboard helps improve patient outcomes by enabling data-driven decision-making. These tools combine together to increase efficiency for busy providers, allowing them to focus more time on complex cases that need more attention.

This tool allows practices to open the digital front door to therapy-first conservative care. This conversational, survey-based triage tool can be deployed flexibly within any setting. It offers recommendations for care, including direct enrollment into the right pathway. It also makes sure to screen for red flags and diverts patients accordingly with complex medical needs.

Enhanced patient care

Pathways offers hybrid programs, giving patients with limited time or barriers to coming to PT a convenient option that includes evidence-based exercises and robust patient education. With a progression system that allows a patient to move from one phase to the next when they feel ready, it empowers patients to take ownership over their own treatment journey.

Pathways fosters better patient engagement through tools built into their programs like home exercise programs, remote monitoring, patient adherence tracking, and in-app messaging. Utilizing the app, providers can follow up with patients experiencing chronic pain between visits, ensuring that they’re still being engaged with frequent touchpoints even though they aren’t coming into the office.

Cost Savings

Imagine a patient with chronic knee pain comes in for an in-person episode of care, following their prescribed program until they feel some level of relief and stop. A few months later, the patient seeks care again because the issue is chronic. This cycle of starting and stopping care is inefficient and expensive. With education, HEP and clinical guidance offered by hybrid care, the patient can mitigate pain earlier, instead of waiting until the condition gets so bad that it’s unbearable and they need to seek urgent care again.

Better Patient Livelihood

When chronic pain is untreated, it can dramatically affect a patient’s quality of life. With condition-specific education and exercises to mitigate pain and improve movement, patients can improve the quality of their daily lives.

What’s Next for Digital MSK Care?

Ultimately, Pathways is designed to assist clinicians by streamlining workflows and reducing administrative burden—it’s not designed to replace clinicians. We’re working towards a future where technology helps clinicians provide better care to more patients, faster.

Pathways is now available for all, and we’ve got exciting new pathways in development. We’re continuing to roll out new functionality the rest of this year, including quality of life features like Spanish translation across the entire application, a fully integrated Pathways experience within the Epic EHR, and expanded telehealth functionality for easier communication between patient and provider.

Want to learn more about how Pathways can help you manage chronic pain and help your patients move, feel, and live better? Request a demo of Pathways today.