# Achieving Excellence in Biopsychosocial Cancer Pain Management through a Comprehensive Quality Education Program

> **NIH NIH R25** · JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $146,613

## Abstract

Pain management is critical throughout cancer care, from diagnosis through treatment and survivorship, and in
advanced illness and at the end of life. Improving cancer pain management is critical over the next decade,
given (1) more number of cancer survivors with long-term consequences of cancer and its treatment, (2) longer
survival with advanced cancer, with more time with and complexity of pain, and (3) growing evidence that
chronic opioids are often ineffective and have many adverse effects and risks. Cancer pain is often
challenging; it interacts with many issues, including psychological and social concerns and other symptoms,
especially fatigue and sleep disturbances. Severe cancer pain is still frequent in the United States; the quality
of pain management is often suboptimal; key effective nonpharmacologic strategies, such as rehabilitation, and
psychosocial approaches, such as patient education and support, are underused; and disparities in
management persist. A key solution, using a biopsychosocial approach, considers not only biological aspects,
but other related symptoms and interactions with psychological (e.g., distress, mood) and social (e.g., culture,
family, financial stressors) factors. The effectiveness of biopsychosocial approaches is well-established, but
improving use in cancer care requires both interdisciplinary health professional education and quality
improvement approaches. This education program is based on the extensive health professional education
programs at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Medicine and supportive oncology
education programs of the City of Hope. The overall goal is to improve US capacity for biopsychosocial cancer
pain management. To accomplish this, we will train 360 cancer care professionals (physicians, nurses, social
workers and others) over the award. In a 15-week program, participants will participate in 8 webinars, an online
simulation program, a 2-day intensive skills-based workshop, and 2 pre-workshop preparatory and 4 post-
workshop implementation faculty-participant conference calls. The aims are to (1) implement a curriculum
for training healthcare professionals in principles of biopsychosocial cancer pain management and
quality improvement, (2) sustain and refine newly acquired pain management and quality improvement
skills through ongoing support and building a networking community, and (3) assess the effectiveness
of the education after the program and sustainability at one year.
An expert team of faculty, advisors and
patient advocates will plan, produce, and evaluate the program, including experts in professional and executive
education, pain management and associated issues and symptoms, skills-based supportive oncology
education and quality of care. The Principal Investigators have combined decades of experience in educating
health professionals in biopsychosocial pain management and program development. We have support from
local and national cancer networks a...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10461096
- **Project number:** 5R25CA225485-05
- **Recipient organization:** JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** SYDNEY MORSS DY
- **Activity code:** R25 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $146,613
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-09-01 → 2023-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10461096

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10461096, Achieving Excellence in Biopsychosocial Cancer Pain Management through a Comprehensive Quality Education Program (5R25CA225485-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10461096. Licensed CC0.

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