BraveNet Multi-Center Study on Integrative Medicine Treatment Approaches for Pain

Integrative medicine (IM) provides a comprehensive approach to care in which healing and wellness of the whole person are the foremost goals. IM is not simply complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), but it stresses patient-centered, healing-oriented care that emphasizes the patient-caregiver relationship. Little is known about the health outcomes of patients who present to an IM center and undergo a variety of treatment modalities to treat a specific condition. Adequately capturing and describing IM patient outcomes is a challenge for many reasons. First, given the whole person focus of IM, multiple domains of outcomes must be considered including physical, psychological, social, and spiritual. Second, since the patient-centric notion of individualized care is seminal to IM, IM outcomes must allow for patient-reported outcomes. Finally, the complexity of whole system care creates a natural barrier when measuring IM efficacy. Whole systems of care theoretically rely on synergistic and inseparable components and conceptualize the patient-practitioner interaction as a key component of care. The Bravewell Integrative Medicine Research Network (BraveNet) is a practice-based research network of nine leading integrative medicine centers around the U.S. collaborating in clinical outcomes research to increase the knowledge and evidence-base of IM. These centers may differ in terms of patient population, medical conditions seen, IM services offered, and treatment outcomes, but all are committed to the provision of integrative care. Preliminary results from an ongoing cross-sectional survey of nine of the BraveNet Outpatient Clinics indicate that pain was the leading reason for patient visits. As a precursor to a large multi-site clinical trial, this study aims to determine the feasibility of collecting outcomes data on integrative treatment for pain. These preliminary data will also provide an estimation of effect size for powering the multi-site clinical trial.