"Not all groups come together, but this one just clicks": Ten Tips for Sustaining an Engagement Panel

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Comparative Effectiveness Research
• Patient Engagement

Background:

• Chronic pain affects numerous veterans, necessitating improved management strategies within the Veterans Affairs (VA) system.
• Opioid therapy for chronic pain carries risks, prompting research into safer, more effective alternatives.
• Patient and stakeholder engagement is crucial for developing relevant and impactful health research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare two team-based approaches for improving chronic pain management among veterans.
• To reduce the potential harms associated with opioid therapy in veteran populations.
• To identify best practices for establishing and sustaining successful patient engagement partnerships in research.

Main Methods:

• Formation of a Veteran Engagement Panel (VEP) comprising ten veterans with lived experience of chronic pain.
• Conducting a comparative effectiveness study across ten Veterans Affairs (VA) sites.
• Evaluating two distinct team-based organizational interventions aimed at pain care improvement.

Main Results:

• The study is ongoing, comparing the effectiveness of two team-based pain management interventions.
• The Veteran Engagement Panel provided valuable input and guidance throughout the study.
• Ten best practices for sustaining successful patient engagement partnerships have been identified.

Conclusions:

• Team-based care models show promise for improving veteran pain management.
• Patient engagement is vital for the successful implementation and relevance of research in veteran healthcare.
• Further research is needed to fully elucidate the comparative effectiveness of different pain management strategies.