New TIVR telephone system to teach pain management skills to patients with arthritis

Joan Broderick, Ph.D., Research Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stony Brook University, has received a $606,000 grant from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This grant, supported by Federal Stimulus Funds, is a new addition to a clinical trial on Coping Skills Training for Arthritis. The study tests the effectiveness of providing follow-up support to patients for managing their pain by way of an automated system that patients use via their home telephone.

The evaluation of the Therapeutic Interactive Voice Response (TIVR) system will determine if benefits from a 10-visit treatment program provided by nurse practitioners for arthritis can be maintained in the months after treatment ends. Patients will be able to review and practice all of the pain management skills that they learn with the nurse anytime they want using the telephone system.

Central to the TIVR program is a personalized message from the nurse to the patient each month about their progress. Dr. Broderick is collaborating with Dr. Patricia Bruckenthal from the SBU School of Nursing to develop the messages and chart patients' progress.

"This new telephone-based system should help people with arthritis maintain better control of their pain as well as be highly cost-effective for medical practices," says Dr. Broderick. "TIVR is simple to use, easily accessed from patients' homes, and takes up very little time for the patient to complete and the healthcare professional to process," she explained.

The NIAMS grant enables Dr. Broderick and colleagues to set up the telephone/computer technology to test TIVR, collaborate with scientists with expertise in telephone-based support for people in pain, and analyze the results. The study will be the first to test TIVR among senior arthritis patients.

"A successful study outcome would open the door to adapting this program for other types of patients with chronic pain," emphasizes Dr. Broderick.

As an additional arm to Dr. Broderick's "Coping Skills Training for Arthritis: An Effectiveness Study," the TIVR program builds on five-year $3.2 million NIAMS grant awarded in 2007.