# Decision Support for Responsible Pain Management (DS-RPM)

> **NIH NIH K23** · UNIVERSITY OF IOWA · 2020 · $147,086

## Abstract

The overall goal of this Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award (K23) is to
support candidate, Dr. Barbara St. Marie, in developing an independent clinical research program to
address effective pain management while minimizing risk for opioid misuse. Dr. St. Marie's training
goals are: (1) develop understanding of clinical decision support and how it applies at the point of care;
(2) achieve a greater understanding on how evidence-based practice can be implemented and sustain
system change; (3) enhance knowledge of information technologies into the design of tools to guide
healthcare providers in making evidence based clinical decisions; (4) develop a deeper scientific and
technical background in statistics, research methods, to inform future intervention and clinical trial
research; (5) gain additional skills and experience in the conduct of research, leadership and scholarly
productivity. These career development goals will be completed under the mentorship of an
accomplished team of investigators at the University of Iowa, a research-intensive organization with
significant and longstanding resources for early-career researchers. These career development goals
will provide her with expertise and guidance necessary to address the problems of two significant and
intertwined public health crises, undertreated persistent/chronic pain and a national drug abuse
epidemic, both requiring immediate and joint resolution. Healthcare providers (MD, DO, NP, PA) are not
prepared to address these problems in the primary care settings and evidence based guidelines are
under utilized. A gap exists in understanding how to use evidence based guidelines and expert
knowledge to manage pain while minimizing risk of opioid misuse that fits into the framework of a
primary care practice. To address this gap, the research plan will be to complete the development and
test a decision support tool (DS-RPM) that will triage patients with pain into three risk groups, then
provide treatment recommendations on the basis of their risk. Alpha and Beta testing (operability) will
occur followed by revisions of the decision support tool. Mixed methods will be used to assess
feasibility through surveys and interviews. Forty healthcare providers will use the app with vignettes and
standardized patients presenting with pain. The acceptability, usability and perceived barriers while
using this tool will be measured. Decision support through the use of technology can be an initial first
step in promoting effective pain management while minimizing risk for opioid misuse or abuse. This
proposal complements the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) strategic focus to support and
conduct drug abuse and addiction research across a broad range of disciplines of health care
providers. Results of this study will further refine the decision support tool and Dr. St. Marie will develop
and submit an R01 application to evaluate the efficacy of the DS-RPM in a larger scale cli...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9915872
- **Project number:** 5K23DA043049-04
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF IOWA
- **Principal Investigator:** Barbara Jean St Marie
- **Activity code:** K23 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $147,086
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-05-01 → 2022-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9915872

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9915872, Decision Support for Responsible Pain Management (DS-RPM) (5K23DA043049-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9915872. Licensed CC0.

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