FPM joins pain sector call to protect outcomes measurement as ePPOC ends
The Faculty of Pain Medicine (FPM) has joined leading pain organisations across Australia and New Zealand in calling for urgent action following confirmation that the electronic Persistent Pain Outcomes Collaboration (ePPOC) will be decommissioned.
ePPOC is a binational outcomes measurement program that supports pain services to collect, analyse and benchmark patient-reported outcomes for people living with persistent pain. For more than a decade, it has enabled clinicians, researchers, health services and governments to better understand the experiences of people receiving pain care, track whether care is improving outcomes, and identify opportunities for quality improvement and service development.
FPM recognises ePPOC as a significant collaborative achievement in pain care. The program has helped make persistent pain more visible within health systems and has supported evidence-informed care, benchmarking, research and policy discussion across Australia and New Zealand.
The closure of ePPOC presents a critical risk to the sector. Without coordinated outcomes measurement, health systems may lose the ability to understand whether pain care is improving people’s lives, identify where services are performing well, and determine where investment, workforce development and reform are needed most.
FPM Dean, Professor Michael Veltman, reiterated the importance of coordinated outcomes measurement in supporting high-quality pain care.
“Data collection and benchmarking are fundamental to quality improvement and help ensure pain services remain accountable, evidence-informed and focused on patient outcomes,” Professor Veltman said.
FPM supports the sector’s shared position that the end of ePPOC must not mean the end of coordinated pain outcomes measurement. Instead, it presents an opportunity to build a contemporary, sustainable, interoperable and consumer-centred approach that reflects current health system needs, technology and data standards.
The joint statement has been issued by the Australian Pain Society, Faculty of Pain Medicine ANZCA, Painaustralia, Chronic Pain Australia, New Zealand Pain Society and the Australian Pain Solutions Research Alliance.
Read the full pain sector media release.
