Pain has always been difficult to measure because it is unique to each person. One person’s back pain can be significantly different from another person’s back pain. In order to better understand each person’s unique pain situation, and in order to provide high-quality pain care to patients, Michigan Pain Consultants (MPC) subscribes to the PRISM™ Care Management System.
The PRISM™ Care Management System was based on the fundamental premise that chronic pain requires chronic disease management. It was inspired by the SF-36 and contains core outcome domains that evaluate the efficacy and effectiveness of treatments.
The Pain Health Assessment (PHA), is a component of PRISM™. It provides patients an opportunity to objectify their pain, which helps their care team better understand how pain is affecting their life, not just the part of the body that hurts. This, in turn, helps the physician provide personalized medicine to each patient. By better understanding how pain is affecting patients, the physicians can get to the heart of the problem quicker and can provide some relief.
Over time, patients can view to what extent treatments have provided relief. This information is very important for a couple of reasons. First, it helps the patient visualize his/her pain journey and gives perspective on improvements made. Second, the information demonstrates that the treatments have been working for a patient. This can be used to prove to insurance companies that ongoing chronic pain management is valuable to the patient and should continue.
Ask your physician how you are progressing and make sure to be an active participant in your pain care!
Here’s how MPC has been doing:
