Past TRIPLL Webinars

2022 Series: Research on Social Relationships and Pain

May 23, 2022: The Relationship Between Social, Cultural and Community Engagement and Pain: Ingredients, Mechanisms, and Outcomes

Presenter: Daisy Fancourt, PhD, University College London

Overview: Research suggests that combinations of physical and psychosocial factors can be protective against the development of chronic pain in older age. In recent years, arts and creative activities have emerged as examples of beneficial psychosocial activities. This presentation will consider the evidence base on the use of the arts both in prevention and management of chronic pain as well as considering the ‘active ingredients’ of arts activities and the ‘mechanisms of action’ by which they achieve health benefits.

May 9, 2022: Social Connection: An Underappreciated Determinant of Health

Presenter: Julianne Holt-Lunstad, PhD, Brigham Young University

Overview: Decades of research demonstrate the health and medical relevance of social connection, isolation, and loneliness. Dr. Holt–Lunstad will discuss how this evidence points to a potential public health crisis, particularly in the context of the pandemic. She will talk about the challenges and opportunities for mitigating risk both for individuals and through public health policy.

April 25, 2022: Caregiver-Assisted Interventions for Coping with Pain: A Dyadic Approach

Presenter: Laura Porter, PhD, Duke University School of Medicine

Overview: Although pain is a private experience, it occurs in a social context. Not only can pain influence significant others, but the responses of significant others can influence how pain is experienced and managed. Dr. Porter will discuss the impact of pain on family caregivers, and the role that they can play in pain management efforts. She will talk about her work developing and evaluating caregiver-assisted pain coping skills interventions for patients with cancer and dementia.

April 11, 2022: Aging & Engaging: Behavioral Interventions to Promote Social Connections in Later Life

Presenter: Kimberly Van Orden, PhD, University of Rochester Medical Center

Overview: Social connections that create a sense of caring, contributing, and community have a range of benefits for health and well-being, while social isolation and loneliness are associated with reduced quality of life and adverse health outcomes. Several promising behavioral interventions, but overall a limited evidence-based to support one intervention over another. Dr. Van Orden will describe the state of the science in interventions to reduce loneliness in later life, describe the work her lab is doing to strengthen the evidence-base for loneliness interventions, and describe a model that can be use to personalize interventions for loneliness.

March 14, 2022: Improving Caregiver Recognition and Communication about Pain in Family Members with Dementia: The Pain Identification and Communication Toolkit (PICT)

Presenter: Catherine Riffin, PhD, Weill Cornell Medicine

2021 Series: Pain and Dementia

June 28, 2021: Embedding interdisciplinary pain assessment and management of persons living with dementia in clinical settings as part of pragmatic clinical trials

Presenter: Abraham (Ab) Brody, PhD, RN, FAAN, NYU Meyers College of Nursing

Overview: This talk will discuss the development and testing of a clinician facing mHealth app to obtain patient-centered clinician and care partner reported outcomes data and reinforce high quality pain and symptom management for persons living with dementia, as part of the Aliviado Dementia Care program being implemented in two large-scale NIA funded pragmatic trials.

June 14, 2021: Remediating cognitive decline in older adults with and without dementia through non-invasive brain stimulation: Implications for pain and cognition

Presenter: Adam J. Woods, PhD, University of Florida

Overview: The use of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in both research and clinical application has increased significantly over the past two decades. This electrical non-invasive brain stimulation for altering neuroplastic response of brain tissue holds promise for remediating age-related cognitive decline as well as intervening on a variety of clinical conditions, including chronic pain. This talk will discuss recent and ongoing trials to remediate age-related cognitive decline and prevent dementia. We will also review recent findings in the remediation of chronic pain and discuss implications for future Phase II and III trials seeking to investigate the clinical benefits of tDCS.

May 3, 2021: State of the Science: Existing intervention to support family caregivers in providing pain management

Presenter: Nai-Ching (Allison) Chi, PhD, RN, University of Iowa

Overview: This presentation will present a systemic review of the current evidence of interventions that are designed to support family caregivers in providing pain management for patients with advanced illnesses. This presentation will also highlight the needs of research for caregivers and patients with a noncancer diagnosis, dementia, or multimorbidity.

May 3, 2021: Pain in Dementia: Best Practices for Assessment & Management

Presenter: Keela Herr, PhD, RN, AGSF, FGSA, FAAN, University of Iowa

Overview: In this webinar, Dr. Herr describes the problems and challenges associated with pain management in older adults with dementia along with the evidence and current resources to guide pain assessment and management with dementia. Further she discusses ongoing priorities to improve pain care for older adults with dementia.

April 26, 2021: Short-term and long-term effects of pain on cognition in older adults

Presenter: Richard Lipton, MD, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York

Overview: In this webinar, Dr. Lipton explains how pain is an important modifiable risk factor because of its high prevalence and because it is amenable to treatment. Additionally, he delves into the links between pain, cognitive function, Alzheimer’s disease, and dementia. Further, Dr. Lipton discusses the Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) measurement of pain and cognition, the nature and reliability of pain metrics derived from EMA, and the links between EMA pain and cognition.

April 12, 2021: Pain in People with Dementia: The Need for Biopsychosocial Approach.

Presenter: Lucia Gagliese, PhD, York University Canada

Overview: This webinar will provide an overview of the current state of knowledge about pain in older people with dementia, including epidemiology, assessment, and impacts. The possibilities for a biopsychosocial model, including predisposing, lifelong and current factors across the trajectory of dementia will be considered. Throughout, knowledge gaps will be identified, and research directions highlighted.

2020 Series: Understanding and Applying the NIH Stage Model for Behavioral Intervention Development to Address Pain Problems

July 20, 2020: Changing Practices in Long Term Care One Stage at a Time

Presenters:   Sheryl Zimmerman, PhD and Kimberly Ward, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Overview:   Behavior change is relevant to individuals and care providers, especially to providers who care for persons living with dementia. The presentation by Zimmerman and Ward will discuss concepts relevant to care for persons living with dementia; explain the evolution of an evidence-based pragmatic program to change mouth care practices in long-term care; and highlight the importance of setting-specific considerations when changing care practices — all of which are applicable for care related to pain and other conditions.

June 22, 2020: Fear and Avoidance after Acute Cardiovascular Events

Presenter:   Ian Kronish, MD, MPH, Director, Columbia Roybal Center for Fearless Behavior Change

Overview:  The experience of a life-threatening cardiovascular event such as a heart attack or stroke can be one of the most terrifying life events. Dr. Kronish will discuss how these cardiovascular events can induce symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and fear of recurrence. He will also describe how patients with PTSD symptoms are at risk of avoiding exercise and cardiac medications as these health behaviors can serve as traumatic reminders of the cardiovascular events. He will conclude by describing some of the early intervention work being developed by the Columbia Roybal Center to reduce distress and promote positive health behaviors in patients that have experienced cardiovascular events.

May 18, 2020:  The Role of Mechanism Discovery and Targeting in the NIH Stage Model

Presenter: Donald Edmondson, PhD, MPH, Columbia University Irving Medical Center

Overview: The need for effective behavioral interventions has never been greater, but existing interventions yield weak and/or difficult to replicate effects. Further, implementation of behavioral interventions at scale is rare, and may further dilute intervention effects. The NIH Stage Model provides a framework for guiding intervention development from early phase discovery through large scale implementation, and the NIH Science of Behavior Change (SOBC) program has articulated a rigorous method for incorporating the underlying mechanisms of behavior change at each stage of intervention development. This talk will discuss how the two frameworks for research complement each other, and how individual researchers can adopt practices that will yield more powerful, replicable, and informative interventions.

April 27, 2020: From Development to Dissemination: The Stage Model and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for the Addictions

Presenter: Kathleen Carroll, PhD, Yale University School of Medicine

Overview: As in many other areas, it has been challenging to move evidence-based treatments into clinical settings.  Dr. Carroll will describe how her group has used the Stage Model to develop, refine, and disseminate cognitive behavioral therapy for substance use disorders.

March 30, 2020: Improving Negative Views of Aging and Personal Control Beliefs to Promote Engagement in Physical Activity

Presenter: Manfred Diehl, PhD, Colorado State University

Overview: Although most middle-aged and older adults know that regular engagement in physical activity has many health benefits and helps to promote healthy aging, the actual rate of physically active adults is quite low. This fact points to social-cognitive and motivational factors as potential barriers that keep adults from becoming more physically active. Dr. Diehl will discuss the role that negative views of aging and low personal control beliefs play as possible motivational barriers. Furthermore, he will present evidence that making individuals’ negative views of aging more positive and strengthening their personal control beliefs represents a promising approach to promote engagement in physical activity and potentially other health behaviors.

February 27, 2020: Principle-driven Behavioral Intervention Development to Promote Health and Well-Being

Presenter: Lisa Onken, PhD, National Institute on Aging

Overview: Knowing the principles of a behavioral intervention tells us what is important about the intervention, why it is important, and why it may be critical to administer the intervention in a particular way. This has implications for improving the efficacy of an intervention and the way in which an intervention is disseminated and implemented. Dr. Onken will describe the NIH Stage Model, a conceptual framework for behavioral intervention development, and its goal of developing principle-driven interventions that are devised to be administered with maximal ease. She will explain why using the NIH Stage Model has utility for creating potent interventions that can be delivered in a way that remains consistent with their principles and ultimately improve the health and well-being of individuals in need.

2019 Series: Mechanisms and Management of Later Life Pain

July 8, 2019: Chronic Low Back Pain in Older Adults: Evolution of a Research Agenda

Presenter: Debra Weiner, MD, University of Pittsburgh

Overview:  This presentation will discuss the evolution  of Dr. Weiner‘s research on chronic low back pain in  older adults.  Her research developed organically in the  context of her clinical care of these patients and has  evolved into a multi-site clinical trial.  She hopes that  this model can be applied to others who wish to  develop a program of research.

May 20, 2019: Assessment of Pain Modulation in Older Adults

Presenter: Joseph Riley III, PhD, University of Florida

Overview: Community-based and clinical findings indicate that older adults are at greater risk for more frequent and prolonged pain and suffer from pain at multiple sites compared to younger cohorts.  Dr. Riley will present data from his sensory testing laboratory that demonstrate older adults exhibit diminished descending pain inhibitory capacity and increased pain facilitation.  An imbalance of these systems among older adults likely contribute to the increased risk for the development of persistent pain compared to younger adults.

April 29, 2019: Close Relationships and Chronic Pain Self-Management

Presenter: Lynn Martire, PhD, Penn State University

Overview: Self-management of chronic pain often involves monitoring symptoms, adhering to medication regimens, and improving health behaviors, all of which occur in a social context. Dr. Martire will review the existing evidence supporting behavioral pain interventions that target a close family member as well as the pain sufferer, summarize key knowledge gaps in this area, and describe opportunities for future research.

March 18, 2019: Mechanisms Supporting Mindfulness – Based Pain Relief

Presenter: Fadel Zeidan, PhD, University of California San Diego School of Medicine

Overview: Dr. Fadel Zeidan will describe the psychological, physiological and neural processes that are involved in mindfulness meditation-based pain relief. He will also discuss how mindfulness is different from placebo and the potential clinical applications of mindfulness.

February 25, 2019: Psychological Therapies for Pain

Presenter: Robert D. Kerns, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry, Neurology and Psychology at Yale University

Overview: A broad array of evidence-based psychological approaches for the management of pain are currently available including mindfulness-based stress reduction, progressive relaxation, biofeedback, hypnosis, operant-behavioral therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, couples and family therapy, and supportive psychotherapy, among others. The strength of evidence of efficacy and effectiveness for these approaches varies across specific pain conditions and settings and across outcome domains. Scientific knowledge and practice gaps, particularly organizational, provider and patient barriers to accessing psychological therapies for pain, will be highlighted.

2018 Series: Innovations in the Management of Later Life Pain

June 25, 2018: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Chronic Pain in Older Adults

Presenter: Julie Wetherell, PhD, ABPP, VA San Diego Healthcare System and University of California, San Diego

Overview: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a psychotherapy model that deemphasizes efforts to change aversive internal experiences and prioritizes living in accordance with deeply held values, even in the presence of distress or discomfort. It is one of few therapeutic modalities that the American Psychological Association’s Division 12 (Society for Clinical Psychology) describes as having “strong research support” for chronic or persistent pain. Dr. Wetherell’s presentation will describe the ACT model and discuss the use of ACT for chronic pain, with an emphasis on factors that may make ACT particularly appropriate for older adults.

May 14, 2018: A Technology-assisted Chronic Pain Self-Management Intervention for Older Adults in a Low-income, Urban Setting

Presenter: Mary Janevic, MPH, PhD, Assistant Research Scientist,  University of Michigan

Overview:  African American older adults living in resource-challenged settings are at high risk for pain-related disability, and have limited opportunities to learn chronic pain self-management skills that may help improve function.  Dr. Janevic will describe the development of a “high tech/high touch” pain self-management intervention that integrates physical activity monitoring and web-based instruction with support from a community health worker, to be tested in a pilot study in Detroit.

April 30, 2018: Developing, Refining, and Evaluating a Behavioral Intervention that Targets Comorbid Chronic Back Pain and Depression in Older Adults

Presenter: Una Makris, MD, MSc, Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, UT Southwestern Medical Center

Overview: Chronic musculoskeletal pain (including chronic back pain) and comorbid mental health diagnoses (including depression) remain common, costly and challenging to manage. Dr. Makris will discuss the development of a behavioral intervention that simultaneously targets chronic back pain and depression in older adults. Core intervention components include patient activation, motivational interviewing, and goal setting that are employed to improve outcomes most relevant to older adults with comorbid physical pain and mental health diagnoses.

March 26, 2018: PATH-Pain: A Behavioral Intervention for Older Adults with Negative Emotions and Chronic Pain in Primary Care

Presenter: Dimitris Kiosses, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology in Clinical Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medicine

Overview: Dr. Kiosses discussed PATH-Pain, a new behavioral intervention for older adults with chronic pain and negative emotions in primary care. PATH-Pain is a manualized 8-week program for primary care that consists of 8 weekly individual sessions and 1 group educational session. All sessions are designed for patients and a willing and available study partner (e.g., family member, caregiver, friend). The goals of PATH-Pain are to reduce negative emotions associated with pain and pain-related disability, increase positive emotions and increase engagement in pleasurable activities; and shift attention during experiences of pain to help reduce pain intensity.

February 26, 2018: Practical Behavioral Interventions for Older Adults with Chronic Musculoskeletal Conditions

Presenter: Kelli Allen, PhD, UNC School of Medicine

Overview: Dr. Allen discussed behavioral interventions including physical activity, weight management, and pain coping skills training for older adults with chronic musculoskeletal conditions (including osteoarthritis and low back pain), with an emphasis on remotely delivered programs that can be broadly disseminated.  Her discussion included practical aspects of intervention delivery, particularly as they relate to special considerations for older adults.

January 29, 2018: Developing the Next Generation of Non-Pharmacologic Approaches to Pain Management in Older Adults

Presenter: M. Carrington (Cary) Reid, MD, PhD, Weill Cornell Medicine

Overview: Dr. Reid summarized what is known about current behavioral approaches to the management of later life pain, reviewed factors that underlie the need for the development of age-appropriate approaches, and summarized recommendations from the recently released Federal Pain Research Strategy supporting these efforts.

2017 Series: Pain and Decision Making

June 26, 2017: The Impact of Expectations & Persistence on Achieving Long Term Goals.

Presenter: Joseph Kable, PhD, University of Pennsylvania

Overview: People often choose to pursue long-term future goals over short-term immediate ones, then abandon this pursuit before achieving the future goal. Dr. Kable will discuss how this failure to persist toward delayed goals can arise from ones expectations regarding uncertain future goals. He will talk about his work showing the critical role of uncertainty in persistence towards future outcomes and examining how different forms of uncertainty are encoded in the brain, and affect other neural representations during voluntary persistence.

May 22, 2017: Racial and Ethnic Pain-Related Disparities: Provider and Contextual Factors and Potential Solutions.

Presenter: Adam T. Hirsh, PhD, Indiana University -Purdue University Indianapolis

Overview: Pain-related disparities for racial/ethnic minority groups exist at multiple stages of the pain care continuum. Dr. Hirsh’s presentation will focus on the provider and contextual factors that contribute to these disparities. He will highlight theoretical and empirical findings indicating how these factors influence pain care and discuss key questions for future research. Dr. Hirsh will also discuss two novel interventions that use virtual human technology to reduce disparities and improve care for low-income minority patients with chronic pain.

April 24, 2017: Patient Expectations and Decision Support Strategies in Pain Care. 

Presenter: Jon Lurie, MD, Dartmouth College

Overview: Dr. Lurie will review the importance of patient expectations as a factor in predicting surgical outcomes. He will also discuss decision support interventions for patients considering spinal surgery as a means of improving pain care.

March 27, 2017: Innovative Ways to Incorporate Patient Preferences into Medical Decision Making.

Presenter: Liana Fraenkel, MD, MPH, Yale University

Overview: Dr. Fraenkel will discuss health communication in the context of pain management. Her discussion will review methods for incorporating patients’ preferences into medical decision-making, including the use of innovative patient decision support tools.

February 27, 2017: Applying Research on Financial Decision Making in Aging to Social and Health Domains

Presenter: Gregory Samanez-Larkin, PhD, Yale University

Overview: Dr. Samanez-Larkin will discuss how monetary decisions are made across adulthood, using a combination of study approaches from behavioral (performance and computational modeling) and neuroimaging techniques (fMRI, PET) in the laboratory to experience sampling in everyday life. He will discuss recent extensions of this approach, studying health-related and social decision making in the aging population.

January 9, 2017: The Impact of Age on Pain Management Decision-Making: An Introduction to Our Webinar Series

Presenter: Corinna Loeckenhoff, PhD, Associate Professor, Cornell University

Overview: Dr. Loeckenhoff will provide a broad overview of the current state of research on age differences in decision making ranging from information seeking and reasoning about specific choices to broad contextual factors including family involvement and patient-provider relations. Within each of these domains, potential implications for pain management in later life will be discussed.

2016 Series: Health Pain and Aging

July 25, 2016: mHealth Tools for Older Adults: Usability and Possible Aging Barriers

Presenter: Gaby Anne Wildenbos, M.S., M.A., Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Department of Medical Informatics, Center for Human Factors Engineering of Health Information Technology (HIT-Lab), The Netherlands.

Overview: Mobile health (mHealth) apps can play a significant role in supporting older adult patients. Existing usability guidelines address themes for mHealth app development in general. A plea could be made to create more patient specific guidelines and to address possible aging barriers that older users face in working with touch screen based applications. This webinar provides a case study on a usability evaluation of a mHealth app for older adults and contemplates on possible aging barriers.

June 27, 2016: The Ins & Outs of Building mHealth for Older Adults.

Presenter: Kelly Grindrod, PharmD, MSc, Assistant Professor, University of Waterloo School of Pharmacy.

Overview: This webinar will focus on special considerations for designing, building and testing mHealth with older adults. The digital divide means that older adults are often overlooked as potential users of mHealth. However, the very factors that make people less likely to use technology (age, low literacy, low income), are the same factors that increase the risk of chronic disease. Dr. Grindrod will discuss strategies for overcoming the digital divide in mHealth research and will share design patterns that can be used to improve the design of mHealth tools.

May 23, 2016: A Design Research Approach to Geriatric Care

Presenters: Tom Page PhD, MPhil, BSc. (Hons), C. Eng, MIET, MIEEE, Senior Lecturer in Electronic Product Design and George Edward Torrens, PhD, BA hons, MCSD, Senior Lecturer, Loughborough Design School, Loughborough University, UK.

Dr. Page focused on how increasing advance and use of technology presents challenges for older users and older generations who often experience difficulty in using new technology compared with their younger counterparts. Dr. Page investigated how touchscreen devices have affected the usability of interactive consumer products by older adults. The research was conducted with participants and each was required to carry out common tasks on mobile phones which they were unfamiliar with. It was seen that some older users are frequent users of modern technologies such as touchscreens and find this easier to use than systems which are generally perceived as more ‘simple’ systems such as keypads on a mobile phone. Technological advances show a change in interface design, making use easier for all users, in particular older people, yet this has not been developed to its full potential and still deters certain users from choosing to use products implementing these technologies. It is recommended that technology developers consider the needs and desires of older adults as a user group.

Dr. Torrens focused on empathy and affinity: getting to know older people. Mobile health technology now involves proprietary as well as bespoke medical products, both physical and digital. This section of the Webinar will introduce ways in which healthcare practitioners and healthcare product designers can cost-effectively research and develop new mhealth products and services from a social healthcare model. The topics will include: effective literature review; bottom up versus top down research; understanding your product user, empathic modelling, participant recruitment; participatory design; challenges of constrained dialogue; route to market.

April 25, 2016: Improving Self Managment Support for Chronic Pain via Mobile Health tools

Presenter: John Piette, PhD, University of Michigan

Overview: Psychotherapies such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy can help people with chronic pain reduce their symptoms and improve functioning. Unfortunately, these services are often labor intensive, and require frequent face-to-face therapist visits that are inaccessible to many pain sufferers. This webinar will focus on the use of mobile health tools such as automated calls (IVR) and text messaging to increase access to evidence-based treatments. Two models in particular – the COPES program and the CarePartner program show promise for addressing patients’ pain while managing the costs of care. As time allows, we also will review ongoing trials that blend these mobile health strategies with artificial intelligence-based optimization to ensure that users get the services they need while using clinician time as efficiently as possible.

March 21, 2016: Putting Behavioral Treatments for Pain Online: Evidence and Lessons

Presenter: Christopher Eccleston, PhD. Professor of Medical Psychology and Director, Centre for Pain Research, The University of Bath

Overview: The population and personal burden of chronic pain is now well documented. There is good evidence that behavioral medicine interventions are effective in reaching the core goals of self-management: distress reduction, activity engagement, and a reduction in pain report. However, access to face-to-face therapy is poor, meaning that most of the population who could benefit have no opportunity to benefit. E-health interventions are often presented as a solution. But do they work? This seminar reviews the evidence for psychological interventions and looks critically at those that have been tried on line. A summary of lessons learned and the features of potentially successful e-health innovations will be developed in the seminar.

February 29, 2016: mHealth Technology for Management of Pain: Implementation of of a Smartphone Pain App and Activity Data Recorder with Chronic Pain Patients

Presenter: Robert, N. Jamison, Ph.D., Professor, Departments of Anesthesia and Psychiatry, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School

Overview: There has been an explosion of mobile devices that have been used to track health data and change the approach to management of chronic diseases. Mobile health technology is the fastest growing sector of the communications industry and smart phones are available for the majority of the population worldwide. mHealth allows for easy, time-effective coverage of patients at a low cost and offers significant opportunities to improve access to health care, contain costs, and improve clinical outcomes. These devices and programs allow data to be transferred to health care professionals and can offer interventions to a greater number of patients than could be seen individually. A critical barrier to incorporation of technology in assessing and delivering behavioral treatments for patients with pain are outcome studies that demonstrate improvement of care with a decrease in healthcare utilization. Dr. Jamison will review the literature on the use of smartphone pain apps, web-based electronic pain assessment programs, text messaging, and activity monitors, to help manage pain patients’ conditions remotely and that have the potential to decrease healthcare utilization. He will detail the content, face validity, reliability, usability, expense, and technical issues associated with the use of mHealth technology and describe findings from a year-long study of patients with cancer and noncancer chronic pain who are using a smartphone pain app and an activity monitor. This study was designed to assess whether a smartphone pain app (downloaded for free on Android and iPhone devices) would allow patients and physicians to more easily 1) identify factors exacerbating or relieving pain, 2) modify treatment, and 3) help the individuals understand and control their pain. Initial results demonstrate the benefits of movement monitors and 2-way supportive messaging to improve compliance. Future study opportunities with increased focus on preventative health, remote feedback, and wellness tracking using mHealth technology for persons with pain will be presented.

January 25, 2016: One Size Doesn’t Fit All: Personalized Digital Health Approaches to Chronic Disease Management

Presenter: Jennifer Stinson, RN-EC, PhD, CPNP, The Hospital for Sick Children

Overview: One in five Canadian children and youth will suffer from recurrent or chronic pain. Many children with chronic pain do not have access to an integrated care approach, which encompasses multiple treatment modalities (pharmacological, physical and psychological) to address the multifaceted nature of this condition. The use of digital health technologies has facilitated access to appropriate and timely care. Dr. Stinson will provide examples of web and smartphone based applications for the assessment and management of chronic pain in children. She will also discuss how this research has applications for the management of pain in older adults.

2015 Series: Pain Management, Pain Care, and  Science of Behavior Change

June 30, 2015: Propensity Score Method in Chronic Pain Research

Presenter: Felix Thoemmes, PhD; Assistant Professor, Department of Human Development, College of Human Ecology, Cornell University

Overview: Research on chronic pain is often faced with the inability to randomly assign participants. This lack of randomization gives rise to selection bias, which has traditionally been addressed using regression adjustment. Propensity score analysis (PSA) is an alternative that models the relationship between confounders and treatment selection. PSA provides several model adequacy checks, and is typically more robust (less model-dependent) than regression adjustment. This webinar will highlight the underlying logic of PSA, and present some software implementations, alongside an applied example of the use of PSA in chronic pain research using the MIDUS dataset.

April 27, 2015: Age Differences in Decision Making

Presenter: Catherine Riffin, PhD, Department of Human Development, College of Human Ecology, Cornell University

Overview: Compared to younger adults, older individuals seek less pre-decisional information, focus more on emotionally salient and personally relevant material, and delegate difficult choices to trusted social network partners. They also favor experience-based decision strategies over systematic and complex approaches. This webinar will offer an overview of typical age patterns in decision-making strategies and preferences among older adults (aged 65+).

March 23, 2015: Treating Chronic Pain in Older Adults: New Opportunities for Intervention

Presenter: Cary Reid, MD, PhD; Director of TRIPLL, Irving Sherwood Wright Associate Professor and Director of the Office of Geriatric Research in the Division of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College

Overview: This Webinar will present an overview of the impact of pain in later life, highlight knowledge gaps, and describe opportunities to improve its management with a particular focus on behavioral interventions and emerging technologies.

2014 Series: Pain Management, Pain Care and Pain Disparities

June 23, 2014: Treating Chronic Refractory Pain in Older Adults: What are the issues?

May 19, 2014: Identifying the Continuum of Contextual Factors Contributing to Pain Disparities:From Variants of Age Discrimination, Cultural Sensitivity, and Beyond

Presenter: Tamara Baker, PhD; Associate Professor, School of Aging Studies, University of South Florida College of Behavioral & Community Sciences

Overview: Disparities in the management of pain is often described at the peripheral level, thus only highlighting descriptives that differences occur. There are, however a myriad of social and cultural issues that not only describe these differences, but more importantly, define why such disparities occur and continue to exist. This webinar will define how cultural, social, and societal issues contribute to inequities in pain management among diverse populations (beyond just race).  Understanding pain disparities from a life course (historical) perspective will be addressed, while highlighting current initiatives designed to ensure equal treatment for all.

April 28, 2014: The Problem & Consequences of Multisite Pain in Older Adults

March 24, 2014: Management of Osteoarthritis in the Older Adult: A Rheumatologist’s Perspective

February 24, 2014: Quality Pain Care for All Older Adults: Progress & Future Directions

January 27, 2014: Improvements in Pain Management through Appreciation of Nocioceptive Pathways and Analgesic Mechanism of Action

Presenter: Joseph Shega, MD; Regional Medical Director, VITAS Innovative Hospice Care

Overview: A plethora of analgesics are available for use and each maintains a unique mechanisms of action. Studies suggest pain management can be improved by blocking nocioceptive pathways in multiple locations, but necessitates a strategic approach based upon the most relevant pathways. Nocioceptive pathways will be reviewed and analgesic mechanism of actions discussed. Case studies highlight the technique and incorporates a review of the evidence.

2013 Series:

October 30, 2013: Utilizing the NIH Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System.

Presenter: Thelma J. Mielenz, PhD; Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health

Overview: This webinar provided an introduction to basic concepts of measurement theory -classical test and modern -and how they are applied to measures in the NIH Roadmap Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS). At the end of the webinar, participants  were able to describe the three broad objectives of PROMIS, including: item banks, CATs and the PROMIS Assessment Center. The webinar briefly demonstrated what the PROMIS Assessment Center can do, including: selecting PROMIS instruments for use in studies, creating surveys, collecting data and utilizing CATs.

September 11, 2013: Oral Health and Healthcare for the Older Adult:Why it Matters

Presenter: Kavita P. Ahluwalia, DDS, MPH; Associate Professor of Dental Medicine (at CUMC), College of Dental Medicine, Columbia University & Ira B. Lamster, DDS, MMSc; Dean Emeritus, Columbia University College of Dental Medicine and Professor, Department of Health Policy and Management, Mailman School of Public Health.

Overview: The increasing proportion of retained teeth in older adults has resulted in an increase in oral disease and oral healthcare needs in this population.  This webinar will describe the role of the oral cavity in maintaining quality of life, function and health in the older adult, and will underscore the impact of systemic diseases and declines in physical and cognitive function on oral health outcomes.  Practical steps that older adults, caregivers, and non-dental providers can take to prevent oral diseases and mitigate the symptoms associated with early disease will be discussed.

June 11, 2013: Practical Skills in Conducting Effective Focus Groups

Presenter: Laura Robbins, DSW; Senior Vice President of Education and Academic Affairs and Associate Scientist in the Research Division at Hospital for Special Surgery and Associate Professor in Internal Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical Center.

Overview: Health care practitioners and researchers conduct focus groups to gather valuable insight about and a better understanding of clients who reside in hospitals and community settings. This webinar focused on the practical skills needed to conduct focus groups with an emphasis on group dynamics, development of questions and active listening.

May 15, 2013: Issues in the Management of Pain in Later Life

Presenter: Cary Reid, MD, PhD; Director of TRIPLL, Irving Sherwood Wright Associate Professor and Director of the Office of Geriatric Research in the Division of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College.

Overview:  Chronic pain is a significant public health problem and confers substantial morbidity and suffering across all age groups, particularly among persons ages 65 and above. Advancing age constitutes an important risk factor for underassessment and undertreatment of pain, providing strong support for efforts that seek to develop and translate effective interventions for older adults with chronic pain. Some of this work may involve developing new models of dissemination for existing evidence-based programs, as well as developing new targets for intervention. This Webinar presented an overview of the impact of pain in later life, described gaps in management, and outlined recommendations for improving pain care among older adults.

April 19, 2013: Managing Refractory Pain in Patients with Musculoskeletal Disorders

Presenter: Stephen Paget, MD; Physician in Chief Emeritus, Prior HSS Chairman of the Division of Rheumatology, Director of the HSS Rheumatology Academy of Medical Educators and the Stephen A. Paget, Rheumatology Leadership Chair.

Overview: This webinar focused on the diagnostic algorithms and treatment options employed in the setting of acute and chronic pain syndromes that arise in a broad range of patients with musculoskeletal and systemic autoimmune/inflammatory disorders.

March 11, 2013: Survey Design Made Simple: Tips for Conducting a Local Survey

Presenter: Karl Pillemer, PhD; Professor of Human Development, Cornell University and  Professor of Gerontology in Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College.

Overview: Many organizations conduct surveys to assess local needs, shed light on client satisfaction, or to gather other kinds of knowledge from a specified group of people. This webinar provided a non-technical overview of some principles of good survey design that participants can put into use. Dr. Pillemer reviewed common mistakes that can bias the outcome of surveys, and described the steps for conducting a successful survey.