Learning Health Systems to Improve Pediatric Pain Outcomes

The pandemic has forced the healthcare industry to leverage its resources in order to better adapt and combat the new challenges it has brought. This also inspired us in healthcare to take a closer look at how we can utilize the available technology more effectively and efficiently.

 

In this episode, Dr. Rashmi Bhandari, PhD, a pediatric pain psychologist at Stanford University, shares the instrumental role of learning health systems for improved outcomes when treating children's pain. Dr. Bhandari believes that decisions about appropriate treatments are dependent on accurate data. 

 

She’ll talk about how big data plays in the management of children’s pain and for improving treatment outcomes for all involved. We will also compare and contrast some of the aspects of CHOIR with other databases and registries.

 

Listen to this episode as we explore the patient outcomes based database and data registries as well as the highlights of some of Dr. Rashmi’s work and contribution in the area of utilizing databases registries for improving health outcomes for children’s pain!

 

Takeaways In This Episode:

 

How Dr. Rashmi Bhandari became a pediatric pain psychologist Patient outcomes based databases and data registries Dr. Bhandari expound her specific database and data registry Dr. Bhandari sheds light on the learning health systems that she’s involved with Important components needed for CHOIR to capture the unique aspects of pediatric pain The difference between the parent or caregiver date versus the children’s data The cost of implementing a learning health system How one can access or participate in Peds-CHOIR

 

Links:

Rashmi Bhandari, PhD LinkedIn Stanford Profile Peds-CHOIR RedCap PROMIS tool EPOC Proactive Pain Solutions Physicians Academy Kids Are Not Small Adults: Need for Pediatric Pain Care

 

About Our Guest:

Dr. Rashmi Bhandari

Dr. Rashmi Bhandari joined the Pediatric Pain Management Clinic and Stanford faculty in 2005 and has since been working with children who have complex chronic pain conditions and their families. She is the Director of Psychology Services for the Pediatric Pain Clinic and oversees all aspects of clinical pain psychology services. In addition to practicing behavioral pain medicine, Dr. Bhandari is the director of the pediatric pain psychology fellowship training. The education curriculum created for the pain psychology fellowship is now the leading standard in the field, educating future pediatric psychologists who want to specialize in pain medicine. Dr. Bhandari has extensive training in bio behavioral interventions for chronic pain such as biofeedback and is certified by the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis.

 

Dr. Bhandari is a committed clinician, educator, and researcher with a focus on assessment and development of treatment interventions to improve the lives of youth with chronic pain. Decisions about the appropriate treatments, however, are dependent on accurate and useful data—data that have been lacking for adults and children who experience chronic pain. This lack of information inspired the creation of a health registry called CHOIR. Dr. Bhandari helped lead the pediatric adoption of CHOIR, called Peds-CHOIR (Pediatric Collaborative Health Outcomes Information Registry) which is a novel, open-source outcome-dual tracking vehicle for youth with chronic pain and their caregivers. This registry is utilized by clinicians to offer patient tailored interventions in real time while creating opportunities to study important predictors and consequences of treatment factors.

 

Dr. Bhandari, has successfully led the Pediatric Pain Clinic in multiple clinical innovations including tele-medicine, canine-assisted therapy, and sleep treatment interventions to continue offering evidence based treatments and improving access to care.