Project 459707

We will establish a national network to mobilize knowledge about pain to improve public awareness of pain, improve access to care and appropriateness of care, provide organizations with the best knowledge to support their activities and to inform good policy decisions. Chronic pain affects 20% of Canadians with major impact upon patients and their families. Canada has a strong international reputation for the quality and impact of its pain research, and for innovations in care and educational programs. However these are often 'siloed' and not generally available. The Canadian Pain Task Force has identified a need for improvement in public awareness of pain, access to care, education of healthcare and other professionals and a need to better inform healthcare policy about pain. The CIHR through its Strategy for Patient Oriented Research in 2016 supported the creation of Canada's first national pain research network- the Chronic Pain Network (CPN). Patient partners are integrated into the network governance and into the process of research, from establishing priorities through conduct of research and on to dissemination of results. Policy makers have also reached out to the CPN to obtain a pain patient perspective on issues such as the response to the opioid crisis. Sex, gender and culture have significant impact upon pain and its care, and there has been an increased awareness of the Indigenous perspective on health research in general and the experience of pain in particular. Building on relationships and knowledge from the CPN and in collaboration with experts in Knowledge Mobilization and Implementation Science, this next phase of the CPN will disseminate knowledge to the public, to healthcare professional education and clinical practice, to organizations and into policy. This will include the first ever establishment of an Indigenous perspective pain program integrating Western medicine and Indigenous 'ways of knowing' using the Two Eyed Seeing approach.