Chronodol®Â : quels patients adresser à une structure d'étude et de traitement de la douleur chronique ?

The orientations given by the public authorities are clear: the improvement of chronic pain management implies a close collaboration between general practitioners (GPs) and hospitals. In perfect adequacy with this vision, the Regional Health Project of the Centre region allowed the development of a new “decision-making” tool, to help GPs to answer the question “Which patients should be referred to a chronic pain clinic?”. This article aims to present the Chronodol® tool, created thanks to an original partnership between the Regional Health Agency, health care providers, an association of patients and a pharmaceutical firm. Birth of the project, creation of a first version, test in real condition, validation and diffusion of the final version: all these phases of development are described. Beyond the paper document, Chronodol® can be downloaded (www.indolor.org/chronodol); an application for smartphone is under development.