Virtual and in-person chronic pain management outcomes: A retrospective observational study

LAY SUMMARY At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and its challenges, there was a lack of accessible health care, including chronic pain management. In hopes of providing care for patients who sought treatment, many services shifted to virtual care, which was still accessible despite the pandemic. Although the problem of accessibility was solved, the effectiveness of a virtual chronic pain management program compared with an established in-person program that has historically provided results needed to be evaluated. This research looked to answer the question of a newly established virtual program’s effectiveness by measuring various pain-related variables in patients who completed the program. No differences were found between the results of a sample of patients who completed the program virtually and the results of those who completed the program in person. This study aligns with new research in the field of virtual chronic pain management. Results show that the virtual program is effective and accessible because of the nature of online care. Moving forward, virtual therapy can be effective in treating chronic pain and may potentially be a key tool in the future of clinical care overall.