Research Areas
- Ageing
- Anaesthesia and Critical Care
- Cancer
- Cardiovascular
- Dermatology
- Diabetes
- Ear, Nose and Throat
- Gastroenterology
- Genetics
- Haematology
- Hepatology
- Infectious Diseases
- Mental Health
- Metabolic and Endocrine
- Musculoskeletal Health
- Neuroprogressive and Dementia
- Ophthalmology
- Oral and Dental
- Paediatrics
- Pain
- Primary Care
- Regenerative Medicine
- Renal
- Reproductive Health and Childbirth
- Respiratory
- Stroke
- Trauma and Emergencies
NRS Pain developments
Past events
NRS Pain / SPARC 10th Annual Scientific Meeting
- Update on National Developments in Chronic Pain - Prof Blair H. Smith
-
Abstracts for Research Presentations - to note, abstracts included are those who have agreed for their work to be published.
- Posters:
- Comorbidity of chronic pain, cardiometabolic diseases and depression: prevalence, health outcomes and patient experience - Simin Wu
- Pre-hospital pain management in adults: a service evaluation of the Scottish Ambulance Service - Martin Esposito
- Persistent postoperative opioid use in Europe: A systematic review - Prof Patrice Forget
- Sex-specific genomic-wide association study of multisite chronic pain in UK Biobank - Keira Johnston
- TVR130 and PZM21 developed as biased opioid analgesics with fewer side effects have incomplete efficacy as mu receptor agonists - Emily Edelsten
- Unscheduled Care by People with Advanced Cancer: An analysis of Frequent Attenders in a retrospective cohort study in Tayside - Dr Sarah Mills
- Significant genetic correlations among pain in different body sites- evidence from the UK Biobank - Dr Weihua Meng
Successes to date
- A successful proposal to the Scottish Intercollegiate Guideline Network (SIGN) to produce the first SIGN guideline on chronic pain assessment and management. SIGN Guideline development group established (Chair L Colvin). SIGN Guideline 136: Management of Chronic Pain was completed on time (Dec 2013), and has been well received
- Annual Scientific Meetings: the aim of these is to further the above aims, to showcase Scottish pain research and to develop a strong network of pain researchers in Scotland. We have held seven Annual Scientific Meetings (March 2011 - 2017) to date. These have been attended by around 100 delegates on each occasion, and have allowed presentation of current and recent Scottish research on pain. We have also had keynote lectures from internationally renowned pain specialists, including 5 presidents of the main international pain organisation - the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP). This has also generated international interest in developments in Scottish Pain Services, with an invited article in the IASP newsletter last year. Discussions arising from these ASMs have led directly to successful research funding applications
- Filling research gaps identified by SIGN 136. One of these was the use of opioids for chronic pain, an area of growing concern. Through SPaRC, a successful collaboration gained CSO funding to study this. This project is now complete, with a number of presentations at international meetings, and publications in preparation, plus further funding applications in progress to extend this work
Consultation on NHS Scotland Core Minimum Dataset and Quality Performance Indicators for Pain Services Project aims
Consultation on NHS Scotland Core Minimum Dataset and Quality Performance Indicators for Pain Services Project aims
This project is important in improving service provision for people in Scotland with chronic pain. We have compiled:
- A Core Minimum Dataset, containing the minimum essential information to be collected for all patients attending Pain Services in Scotland; and
- Quality Performance Indicators, with indicative standards relating to selected aspects of service provision, which each Pain Service will be expected to meet
These will help us to provide a better understanding of the various elements of the treatment of chronic pain, at both service and patient level.
| Service Level | Patient Level |
| The prevalence and societal impact of chronic pain | The availability of and access to pain services |
| The demographics and needs of the patient group | The availability of and access to exercise and activity therapies |
| The effectiveness of any service provision | The frequency of pharmacy reviews |
| The resources that will be required to address any areas for improvement | The personal and societal impact of chronic pain |
| The frequency of pharmacy reviews | The availability of and access to pain education for patients |
| Meaningful measurement of service quality via the QPIs | |
| The use of outcome measures | |
| Service evaluations within pain services. | |
| The availability of and access to exercise and activity therapies | |
| The structure and composition of pain services, and gaps that should be addressed |
How were the Quality Performance Indicators and Core Minimum Dataset developed?
Core minimum dataset (CMD) is based on:
- Validated questionnaires
- Best available evidence
- Previous consultation exercise with NHS clinicians
- Balancing the need for detail with the need for feasibility of collection
- Other issues such as licensing costs and burden of administration were also taken into consideration when developing this dataset
The Quality Performance indicators are based on:
- Best available evidence from research and literature review
- Previous consultation exercise with NHS clinicians
- The main source of evidence for these QPIs is SIGN 136 and the National Prescribing Strategy
In addition, the QPI's were modelled against the four levels of the Scottish Service Model. One of the aims of this project is to reduce the number of patients that use higher level services (e.g. level four services) by implementing more consistent standards at all other levels, and thus to improve efficiency of resource use.
You can see full details of the consultation in the pdf document.