Pro-Change was recently awarded a Phase II SBIR by the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH)1 to develop a mobile app to promote the adoption of self-management strategies for chronic pain. The app will provide tailored behavior change guidance based on each Veteran’s readiness to self-manage pain and his or her preference for pain self-management strategies. In addition, it will address stress management and healthy sleep habits. The development process will involve input from several stakeholders and a number of end users to maximize usability. A 12-month randomized controlled trial will then be conducted to examine the effectiveness of the app.

Pro-Change’s work in this area began with Phase I funding from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences2. The promising results of that preliminary work were recently published in The Journal for Medical Informatics.

“There has never been a more important time to be promoting self-management of chronic pain” notes Dr. Johnson. “We are very grateful to NCCIH for their support and are honored to be working to address a critical need for our nation’s Veterans.”

1 9R44AT009675-02
21R43TR000362-01A1