U of S pharmacy researchers receive funding for chronic pain management pilot project

On Tuesday, it was announced that Health Canada will be awarding $1.7 million over three years to pharmacy researchers at the University of Saskatchewan to go toward a new chronic pain management program.

“Right now patients who live with chronic pain don’t have a lot of options when it comes to seeking services from the health system,” said Derek Jorgenson, a pharmacy professor at the U of S.

“This is going to utilize pharmacists who are currently looking for more opportunities and more responsibility in patient care to take the lead in managing patient’s medication with chronic pain and consulting with the specialists who normally take the lead in managing these medications and working together collaboratively.”

According to a news release from the U of S, the funding will be used to hire “two full-time pharmacists to provide chronic pain medication assessments, one part-time pain specialist physician and one full-time pharmacist to create new patient educational materials.”

The pilot project is aimed at finding ways to reduce opioid use among patients with chronic pain by utilizing other pain-reducing approaches like physical therapy, counselling and exercise when possible.

“It’s always an individualized patient approach because tapering the opioids isn’t always the best solution. There are certainly cases where the person is on an opioid and they need to be on an opioid and it’s all about minimizing the risk,” said Jorgenson.

“That’s probably the key thing that we are learning with chronic pain, is that it has to be an individualized approach and medications are just one small piece of it.”

Janet Gunderson is one of nearly 250,000 Saskatchewan residents who are living with chronic pain.

She has been dealing with it for over 20 years since she was diagnosed with a rare form of inflammatory arthritis in 1999. She says she is excited by this announcement and believes it is a step in the right direction for the province.

“It sure looks like they are starting to (put their money where their mouth is), so I hope this does lead to other things like this. The data proves that this is helping other patients,” she said.

Jorgenson believes the funding they received should be enough for the pilot project to do what it is supposed to and set them up well for knowing what the next steps will be at the end of the three years.

“We have three years of funding and I think by the end of three years we will have a good idea of what the impacts of this innovation are on the health system,” he said. “After that, it won’t be enough if we want to scale it and spread this.”