Now Available: Exploring Pain
Episode 8: Pain in Veterans

Watch the full episode now in the Media Center

With chronic pain affecting approximately 50% of veterans receiving VA care, which is nearly double the national average, traditional and resource-intensive treatment models face severe scalability barriers.

In this episode, host Laura Wandner, PhD, sits down with leading VA investigators Diana Higgins, PhD, Diana Burgess, PhD, and Sara Edmond, PhD, to dissect breakthrough data from recent large-scale trials under the Pain Management Collaboratory (PMC).

Key areas covered in the discussion:

• The Asynchronous Advantage: Recent clinical trials challenge the assumption that behavioral health interventions require synchronous, face-to-face delivery. Discover how self-directed, telephone-supported CBT (the COPES trial) and streamlined mindfulness protocols (the LAMP study) achieved statistically and clinically superior 12-month outcomes compared to traditional formats.

• Operationalizing Pragmatic Designs: Learn the implementation mechanics used to successfully embed randomized protocols directly into real-world electronic health record (EHR) workflows while minimizing clinician administrative burden.

• The Policy and Reimbursement Chasm: The panel breaks down the implementation science required to translate integrated, whole-person care models out of the closed VA network and into broader, fee-for-service private healthcare structures.

Whether you are designing pragmatic clinical trials, evaluating nonpharmacological protocols, or studying health systems delivery, this episode offers vital insights into scalable clinical translation.