Publication date: Oct 01, 2025
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated telemedicine adoption, yet its effectiveness in chronic pain management remains uncertain. This study compared telemedicine and in-person outcomes and identified factors influencing success at a Southeast Asian teaching hospital. A retrospective review analyzed telemedicine and in-person outpatient department (OPD) visits from January 2022 to November 2023. Successful outcomes were defined by improvement on the Patient Global Impression of Improvement (PGI-I ≤ 3/7) scale, Numerical Rating Scale (NRS) reductions ≥ 2/10, or transitions from moderate/severe (>3/10) to mild pain (≤3/10). Generalized estimating equations and logistic regression identified factors associated with successful outcomes. A total of 565 patients (1746 visits) were included: 282 patients (728 visits) in the telemedicine group (T-group) and 283 patients (1018 visits) in the OPD-group. The T-group was older (63 +/- 13 vs 59 +/- 13 years; P = 0. 01), had more psychological comorbidities (18. 44% vs 8. 13%; P
| Concepts | Keywords |
|---|---|
| Cancer | Cancer pain |
| November | Chronic pain management |
| Outpatient | Noncancer pain |
| Teaching | Predictive factors |
| Telemedicine |
Semantics
| Type | Source | Name |
|---|---|---|
| disease | MESH | chronic pain |
| disease | MESH | COVID-19 pandemic |
| drug | DRUGBANK | Spinosad |
| disease | MESH | cancer |
| disease | MESH | neuropathic pain |