BACKGROUND: Chronic non-cancer pain (CNCP) is a disabling condition with radical consequences. Magic fix-it solutions do not exist. CNCP is a condition for life, calling for healthcare services supporting its management. Value-based healthcare is a method to work with healthcare that, in the Capital Region of Denmark, serves as a framework for clinicians, administrators, and politicians to deliver healthcare services that create value for patients within available resources. An investigation conducted in collaboration between the Danish Health Association and Danish Regions, involving patients, medical experts, municipality representatives, and general practitioners found that the following preferences should be addressed to achieve value-based healthcare in multidisciplinary treatment of CNCP: Quality of life; acceptance; maintenance, and labor market; communication; social life; sleep; physical status and energy administration; pain management and -relief; emotional status and mood.
In response to the requirement to provide value in healthcare, the Multidisciplinary Pain Centre at Rigshospitalet designed a pain school intervention based on identified preferences. Previous studies have documented the benefits of educational programs in the multidisciplinary treatment of CNCP, but also ethnic/racial and socioeconomic disparities in treatment responses. The present study AIMED to evaluate patients' experience of participating in a pain school, designed to create value in healthcare in the multidisciplinary treatment of CNCP.