# Tele-Collaborative Outreach to Rural Patients with Chronic Pain: The CORPs Trial

> **NIH NIH UH3** · OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $1,304,577

## Abstract

Project Summary
The overall goal of this multisite, pragmatic, randomized clinical trial is to adapt and test a tele-collaborative
care intervention for chronic pain with veterans living in rural areas. During the 1-year UG3 phase, we will
apply evidence-based quality improvement strategies to adapt our tele-collaborative pain care intervention for
implementation across four geographically diverse VA health care facilities; pilot test and refine recruitment,
intervention and data collection protocols at study sites; and, in collaboration with the Pain Management
Collaboratory Coordinating Center, develop standard operating procedures for all activities to be conducted in
the UH3 clinical trial phase. Engagement panels will inform adaptation of the intervention and all components
of the methods of the clinical trial. During the 4-year UH3 phase, we will implement and evaluate the
intervention among rural veterans with high impact chronic pain in a 12-month pragmatic effectiveness trial.
We plan to recruit 152 veterans from each of four clinical sites (total N=608), diverse in terms of birth sex, race,
and ethnicity. Participants will be randomized to receive either tele-collaborative pain care or minimally
enhanced usual care. The intervention is based on the collaborative care model and includes an initial
biopsychosocial chronic pain assessment with a nurse care manager, follow-up, and participation in a pain
education group. The nurse care manager will receive consultation from a pain physician and participants may
be referred for nonpharmacologic and complementary and integrative health treatments for chronic pain. The
nurse care manager will also follow up with rural veterans and help them navigate care across VA and
community health services. We hypothesize that rural veterans who receive tele-collaborative pain care,
relative to minimally enhanced usual care, will evidence decreased pain severity and interference, increased
physical functioning and quality of life, decreased mental health symptom severity and suicidal ideation and
behavior, improved sleep, and increased utilization of nonpharmacologic and complementary and integrative
health pain treatments. We further hypothesize that treatment effects will persist across female vs. male rural
veterans and those who identify as white non-Hispanic vs. minoritized race or ethnicity. Finally, we will conduct
an implementation process evaluation and an incremental cost-effectiveness analysis to inform development of
an implementation toolkit. Study results will inform the future rollout of tele-collaborative pain care for rural
veterans nationally.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10930165
- **Project number:** 5UH3AT012257-03
- **Recipient organization:** OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Travis Ian Lovejoy
- **Activity code:** UH3 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $1,304,577
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2022-09-14 → 2025-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10930165

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10930165, Tele-Collaborative Outreach to Rural Patients with Chronic Pain: The CORPs Trial (5UH3AT012257-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10930165. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*