Description
Chronic pain is a growing public health and socioeconomic challenge, significantly impacting quality of life, leading to prolonged sick leave, and contributing to high medication use. Despite being a complex and difficult-to-treat condition, interdisciplinary pain rehabilitation (IDT) is currently the most effective treatment approach. IDT typically integrates physical activity, patient education, pharmacological treatment, and psychological interventions, delivered by an interprofessional rehabilitation team. In Sweden, IDT is provided at approximately 30 specialist pain clinics and 20 primary care units connected to the Swedish Quality Registry for Pain Rehabilitation. However, despite structured rehabilitation efforts, treatment effects remain modest, highlighting the need for innovation to enhance patient outcomes.
This project aims to develop and validate an AI-driven clinical decision support system (CDSS) tailored for Swedish IDT. The system is being trained on historical data from approximately 100,000 patients within the Swedish Quality Registry for Pain Rehabilitation, synchronized with six other national registers. By leveraging advanced machine learning, the CDSS will analyze patient-specific data to identify previously unrecognized patterns that can predict health-related outcomes, enabling a more precise and individualized approach to rehabilitation.
The CDSS is designed to assist rehabilitation teams in optimizing treatment selection and design within IDT, ensuring that rehabilitation strategies are better tailored to each patient’s unique needs. By integrating AI-driven decision support into clinical workflows, we aim to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of rehabilitation, ultimately improving patient health while reducing sick leave and medication dependence.
The system is undergoing rigorous validation, ensuring that both the AI engine and clinical interface function optimally within real-world clinical settings. If this validation is successful and further funding is secured, we intend to continue the project with a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to evaluate clinical effectiveness and facilitate the full-scale implementation of the CDSS within Swedish interdisciplinary pain rehabilitation.
SCIENCE COMMUNICATION
Reumatikerförbundet: AI to Help Treat Pain AI ska hjälpa till att behandla smärta - Reumatikerförbundet
Forte: AI to Reduce Pain https://forte.se/artikel/ai-ska-minska-smartan/
Svtnyheter/Dalarna: AI to Help Patients with Pain – New Research at Dalarna University AI ska hjälpa patienter med smärta – ny forskning vid Högskolan Dalarna | SVT Nyheter
Press Release, Region Dalarna: Researchers Granted 4.9 Million SEK to Develop AI-Based Decision Support System Forskare beviljas 4,9 miljoner för att utveckla AI-baserat beslutsstödsystem | Region Dalarna
Dala-Demokraten: Researchers Granted Several Million SEK for AI-Based Research Forskare beviljas flera miljoner för forskning baserat på artificiell intelligens – Dala-Demokraten
Forskning.se: How AI Will Reduce Chronic Pain Fler kan slippa smärta när AI hittar rätt behandling forskning.se
Financiers
