Background: In more and more countries, a specific pain education curriculum is provided to
instruct pain physicians. However, there is little literature on pain education and in particularly
how to evaluate their knowledge. One of the modules interesting to assess is the use of
clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) by pain physicians.
Objectives: The aim was to investigate if a case vignette is useful to evaluate pain physicians’
knowledge about recommendations contained in CPGs.
Setting: An E-mail survey was conducted with the support of the Société Française d’Etude
et de Traitement de la Douleur to all pain specialists (primary and secondary care) in France.
Methods: The survey consisted of a case vignette about a patient with pain suffering from
an intractable pancreatic cancer with multiple choice questions about diagnosis and treatment
of pain. Percentages of participants who treated the patient as suggested in the CPGs were
calculated.
Results: A total of 214 of those invited to participate (921) answered the questionnaire
(24%). More than 85% of the respondents declared to know and use CPGs. Half of the
participants diagnosed and treated neuropathic pain components in the case vignette
according to the recommendations in the CPGs.
Limitations: This exercise needed to be explained: pain physicians should be trained to this
kind of questionnaire. It explains the low response rate and the progressive diminution of
responders during the questionnaire.
Conclusions: Case vignette is an interesting instrument for pain education because it is
cheap, easy to use, and can be repeated. However, training before using this instrument is
needed for pain physicians, in particular during their pain education.
Key words: Education, case vignette, cancer pain, neuropathic pain, evidence basedmedicine, treatment, guideline, pain physician
Cancer Pain Education
