NIH Record - National Institutes of Health

Yale’s Heapy To Lecture on Tech-Based Treatment for Chronic Pain

Dr. Alicia Heapy
Dr. Alicia Heapy

Evidence supports behavioral and self-management interventions for people with chronic pain. Widespread implementation and use of these strategies have lagged, however. Technology-based interventions offer one approach to help address the barriers and improve pain-related outcomes. NCCIH is presenting a virtual lecture on this topic within its Integrative Medicine Research Lecture Series. 

On Tuesday, June 8 from noon-1 p.m. ET, Dr. Alicia Heapy will discuss “Cooperative Pain Education and Self-Management (COPES): A Technology-Assisted Intervention for Pain.” 

Heapy is leading research on a nondrug pain management intervention, COPES, in the military health system. 

COPES is a technology-based form of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) that uses “interactive voice response” and can be accessed by patients remotely and at their preferred times. She will also describe the evidence for COPES’ effectiveness and the relative strengths and weaknesses of technology-assisted and in-person versions of CBT. 

Heapy is associate professor of psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine and associate director of the Pain Research, Informatics, Multimorbidities and Education (PRIME) Center of the VA Connecticut Healthcare System. She also chairs the National Pain Research Working Group. 

The lecture will be streamed on NIH VideoCast and Facebook Live. All are welcome. More information is at https://go.usa.gov/xHpaP

The NIH Record

The NIH Record, founded in 1949, is the biweekly newsletter for employees of the National Institutes of Health.

Published 25 times each year, it comes out on payday Fridays.

Assistant Editor: Eric Bock
Eric.Bock@nih.gov (link sends e-mail)

Staff Writer: Amber Snyder
Amber.Snyder@nih.gov (link sends e-mail)