{"doi":"10.1093/pm/pnaa348","title":"Improving Veteran Access to Integrated Management of Back Pain (AIM-Back): Protocol for an Embedded Pragmatic Cluster-Randomized Trial","abstract":"BACKGROUND: Coordinated efforts between the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Veterans Affairs have built the capacity for large-scale clinical research investigating the effectiveness of nonpharmacologic pain treatments. This is an encouraging development; however, what constitutes best practice for nonpharmacologic management of low back pain (LBP) is largely unknown. DESIGN: The Improving Veteran Access to Integrated Management of Back Pain (AIM-Back) trial is an embedded pragmatic cluster-randomized trial that will examine the effectiveness of two different care pathways for LBP. Sixteen primary care clinics will be randomized 1:1 to receive training in delivery of 1) an integrated sequenced-care pathway or 2) a coordinated pain navigator pathway. Primary outcomes are pain interference and physical function (Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System Short Form [PROMIS-SF]) collected in the electronic health record at 3 months (n=1,680). A subset of veteran participants (n=848) have consented to complete additional surveys at baseline and at 3, 6, and 12 months for supplementary pain and other measures. SUMMARY: AIM-Back care pathways will be tested for effectiveness, and treatment heterogeneity will be investigated to identify which veterans may respond best to a given pathway. Health care utilization patterns (including opioid use) will also be compared between care pathways. Therefore, the AIM-Back trial will provide important information that can inform the future delivery of nonpharmacologic treatment of LBP.","journal":"Pain Medicine","year":2020,"id":102829,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":26,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9572,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":292212,"name":"Cynthia J. Coffman","orcid":"0000-0002-4554-1463","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":292204,"name":"Kelli D. Allen","orcid":"0000-0002-3886-0677","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":501486,"name":"Trevor A. Lentz","orcid":"0000-0002-4286-0733","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":502259,"name":"Ashley Choate","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":442421,"name":"Adam P. Goode","orcid":"0000-0002-0793-3298","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":360896,"name":"Corey B. Simon","orcid":"0000-0002-6121-9511","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":501487,"name":"Janet M. Grubber","orcid":"0000-0001-5682-8745","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":341461,"name":"Heather A. King","orcid":"0000-0002-3103-9528","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":427761,"name":"Chad Cook","orcid":"0000-0001-8622-8361","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":258862,"name":"Francis J. Keefe","orcid":"0000-0003-0583-9326","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":501488,"name":"Lindsay A Ballengee","orcid":"0000-0002-6555-3867","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":264464,"name":"Jennifer C. Naylor","orcid":"0000-0003-2534-8700","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":502260,"name":"Joseph Leo Brothers","orcid":null,"position":13,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":501489,"name":"Catherine Stanwyck","orcid":"0009-0002-9607-0005","position":14,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":501490,"name":"Aviel Alkon","orcid":"0000-0001-6341-134X","position":15,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":501491,"name":"Susan N. Hastings","orcid":"0000-0002-5750-8820","position":16,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":368556,"name":"Steven Z. George","orcid":"0000-0003-4988-9421","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":46,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T22:41:53.173268Z","pmid":"33313728","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}