Effect of Personalized Pain Coaches After Orthopaedic Surgery for Patients With Sports Medicine Injuries

Completed · Not applicable

Conditions studied: Sports Medicine Injuries

In brief

Patients experiencing sports medicine-related injuries are particularly vulnerable to developing both chronic pain and experiencing prolonged opioid use. This multiarmed randomized controlled trial will quantify the impact of integrating Life Care Specialists, and pain management-focused paraprofessionals, have on increasing access to multimodal pain management approaches and subsequently optimizing both patient-reported pain-related outcomes and objective measures of activity. Life Care Specialists work with patients and clinicians on implementing non-pharmacological pain management approaches, specifically teaching participants how to implement mindfulness-based skills into their recovery, systematically conducting standardized biopsychosocial pain assessments, and coordinating care. By developing a toolbox of pain management approaches with the support of the Life Care Specialist, patients are well positioned to incorporate evidence-based pain management approaches into their recovery that result in improved psychosocial functioning and reduced opioid medication utilization. In total, 150 individuals with sports medicine injuries will be randomized to one of two intervention arms where they will work with a Life Care Specialist in person or over telehealth or receive standard-of-care written postoperative instructions for pain management. Patient-reported outcomes, objective actigraphy movement outcomes captured using wrist-based watches, and opioid utilization captured using medication event monitoring system (MEMS) caps will be evaluated over 3-months postoperatively for a total of 4 study visits.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT05821699

Run by

Emory University

People needed

148

Starts

2023-08-17

Expected to finish

2025-09-19

Last updated by the study team

2026-05-19

Who can join

Age: 15 and older, up to 45. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

You may qualify if…

• Adults between 15-45 years old
• Scheduled for orthopedic surgery due to sports medicine injuries (e.g., anterior cruciate ligament tears, meniscus injury, rotator cuff injury, etc.), who are actively employed or full-time athletes before injury

You may not qualify if…

• Individuals unable to provide consent
• Those undergoing revision procedures
• Individuals without access to an internet-connected device
• Individuals who are unemployed or retired at the time of injury will be ineligible.
• Individuals who are incarcerated or pregnant will not be eligible.
• Individuals unable to communicate in English will be excluded since all surveys are validated in English.

Where it is running

• Grady Memorial Hospital — Atlanta, Georgia, United States
• Emory Orthopaedics and Spine Center — Atlanta, Georgia, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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