Chronic pain has become one of the leading causes of suffering and functional impairment across the population, emerging as a silent pandemic in Spanish society. It affects one in four people and represents a growing burden on healthcare systems. However, its management remains inconsistent and, in many cases, difficult to compare across healthcare centers.
The lack of standardization in chronic pain management has a direct consequence: up to 97% of clinical information is neither structured nor systematically analyzed, limiting the ability to learn from accumulated patient experience.
In practice, this means that multiple medical specialties approach chronic pain using different criteria, techniques, and follow-up methodologies, without a shared framework to compare outcomes or identify which interventions are most effective for specific patient profiles.
In response to this challenge, BioSmartData (BSD) is leading a prospective, observational, multicenter study focused on non-oncological chronic pain. The initiative proposes an alternative approach: leveraging data generated during routine clinical practice to build meaningful evidence under real-world conditions.
The project is part of the regional program PINEM23_019, co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Government of the Balearic Islands. The study is expected to include more than 2,000 patients across specialized units.
With a total investment of €2.843 million and a development timeline extending through 2027, the initiative aims to analyze clinical outcomes across different patient profiles and healthcare settings.
Why chronic pain clinical data remains underused
Beyond the availability of therapies, one of the healthcare system’s greatest limitations is the lack of comparable information. Without structured data, healthcare organizations cannot identify patterns, evaluate outcomes, or personalize treatments effectively.
The study is built upon a scientific consensus developed by more than 52 clinical experts, who collaboratively defined 162 standardized clinical variables covering diagnosis, treatment, and patient follow-up.
This framework aims to reduce clinical variability and enable large-scale analysis of outcomes across different healthcare centers.
The importance of real-world evidence in chronic pain
The initiative already has a validated scientific and methodological foundation. The clinical consensus has been completed and published, the data collection infrastructure has been integrated into routine clinical workflows, and the project has received favorable ethical approval (CEIM).
The study is currently in its active data collection phase, with the objective of generating comparable clinical information from patients treated under real-world conditions.
At a time when chronic pain continues to grow and directly impacts the quality of life of millions of people, data-driven healthcare models are emerging as a key pathway to improving the consistency, scalability, and effectiveness of treatments.
About BioSmartData (BSD)
BioSmartData (BSD) develops projects focused on the structuring and analysis of clinical data to improve medical decision-making and generate evidence in real-world healthcare environments.
