CPRIT grant funds study of app for nonpharmaceutical pain management in cancer patients
Enabling self-managed, nonpharmaceutical pain management for patients receiving cancer treatments is the goal of a new study at Cizik School of Nursing atUTHealth Houstonfunded by a $1 million grant from the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT).
World-renowned nurse scientistChao Hsing Yeh, PhD, is The Jane and Robert Cizik Distinguished Chair in the Department of Research and principal investigator on a study that employs self-administered auricular point acupressure to alleviate the pain and discomfort that often accompanies cancer or cancer-related treatments. Through this acupuncture-like technique, stimulation is applied to specific points on the ear, referred to as acupoints. Although it is used widely in Eastern medicine, the pain management method is considered innovative in the Western world.
Medicare在2020年开始涵盖针灸作为疼痛管理，但仅用于慢性腰痛。尽管一些私人保险涵盖了肿瘤学患者针灸，但会议仅限于控制成本。此外，由于该程序涉及频繁的办公访问和额外费用，因此有效实施针灸来管理与癌症相关的疼痛是复杂的。
By contrast, Yeh’s auricular point acupressure method involves pressing on small seeds strategically taped to the ear, and patients can be trained to apply the pressure themselves.
“Building upon our multiple studies, we discovered that auricular point acupressure can be readily translated into self-management to optimize cancer-related pain treatment based on its simplicity and rapid and sustained efforts,” said Yeh.
The CPRIT grant will allow Yeh to upgrade a smartphone app that she and her team developed as part of previous studies. This self-guided tool supports self-administered auricular point acupressure for pain. The grant will support a new version of the app that will include short videos, a mobile-enabled website platform to allow patients to view the information on the device of their choice, access to a data-driven dashboard, and motivational messages to promote adherence. Additionally, the app will be available in Spanish to better serve the rapidly growing Latino population in the Houston area.
Yeh说：“与癌症相关的疼痛仍然是癌症患者和幸存者最令人痛苦的症状之一，导致了严重的功能障碍，并对生活质量产生负面影响，尤其是在非白人患者中接受足够的疼痛管理的非白人患者。”。“我认为，通过耳角腔的自我管理与癌症相关的疼痛，对于报告接受足够疼痛管理的障碍的人群具有巨大的潜力。它还提供了药理学管理的替代方法，通常会带来不愉快的副作用。”
Yeh的团队包括她的Uthealth同事Anneliese Gonzalez，医学博士和Hulin Wu博士。冈萨雷斯（Gonzalez）是休斯顿Uthealth医学院麦戈文医学院血液学系主任。吴是Uthealth公共卫生学院生物统计学和数据科学系的贝蒂·怀特·特罗特教授，也是乌斯顿乌斯顿生物医学信息学院健康科学中心的创始主任。
The team will recruit oncology patients to use the updated app to determine how effective self-guided auricular point acupressure is as an inexpensive way to manage cancer-related pain compared to in-person training.
“This project tackles critical issues in health disparities, particularly within a low-resource framework, addressing unmet cancer-related pain needs with an innovative, low-risk, evidence-based auricular point acupressure tool to allow patients to manage their pain through a targeted, self-management approach,” said Yeh. “More importantly, this project will facilitate a paradigm shift from a narrow disease-based biomedical model to a broader integrative medicine approach to augment care, promote access, and facilitate self-management.”
Yeh于2021年加入Cizik护理学院，在耳角启动研究方面拥有丰富的经验。beplay苹果手机能用吗她的几项研究已从美国国家癌症研究所，美国国家老龄研究所和美国国家护理研究所获得了数百万美元的资金。beplay苹果手机能用吗YEH是美国护理学院的会员，在同行评审期刊上拥有100多家出版物，并因其在推进非药物疼痛管理方面的工作而获得了许多荣誉和奖项。
Laura Frnka-Davis
