Pain Sector Calls for Urgent Action as Binational Outcomes Program Ends

NZPS MEDIA RELEASE

17 June 2026

Pain Sector Calls for Urgent Action as Binational Outcomes Program Ends

Leading pain organisations across Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand are calling for urgent action following the announced decommissioning of the electronic Persistent Pain Outcomes Collaboration (ePPOC), warning that the loss of this binational program risks eroding a nationally and internationally significant capability to measure, understand and improve pain care.

The message from the pain sector is clear:

While the ePPOC program may be ending, the need to measure, understand and improve pain outcomes has never been greater.

Persistent pain is one of the leading causes of disability and reduced quality of life. Effective outcomes measurement is critical to understanding whether care improves lives, where services succeed, and where investment and policy reform are most needed.

For more than a decade, ePPOC has supported benchmarking, quality improvement, research, service development and policy discussions, while helping ensure that the experiences of people living with pain are reflected in the evaluation of care.

Over the past 13 years, more than 145,000 people living with pain have contributed to ePPOC. Together, they have invested more than 217,500 hours completing outcome measures—the equivalent of almost 25 years of uninterrupted effort. This contribution represents one of the largest and most significant consumer investments in pain outcomes measurement in Australia and New Zealand.

The pain sector recognises and acknowledges the significant contribution of ePPOC and the University of Wollongong's stewardship of the program. However, healthcare delivery, technology, consumer expectations and data standards have evolved substantially since ePPOC was established.

The pain sector is not advocating for a return to the past or the preservation of existing systems simply because they exist. Rather, there is a shared commitment to developing a contemporary, sustainable and consumer-centred approach to pain outcomes measurement.

What must not be lost is the capability itself.

Without a coordinated strategic approach to collecting and learning from pain outcomes data, there is a significant risk of fragmenting more than a decade of progress and losing the visibility needed to improve policy, strengthen health systems and deliver better care for people living with pain.

The ability to measure outcomes, benchmark services, support research and understand the lived experience of people with pain is too important to disappear. While the future model may look different, the commitment to making pain visible—and ensuring that people living with pain remain seen, heard and counted—must remain.

As Professor Mark Hutchinson, Chair of the Australian Pain Solutions Research Alliance, stated:

"The opportunity before us is not simply to preserve the past, but to create a next-generation pain outcomes platform that supports research, innovation and better outcomes for people living with pain for decades to come."

The Australian Pain Society, Faculty of Pain Medicine ANZCA, Painaustralia, Chronic Pain Australia, New Zealand Pain Society and the Australian Pain Solutions Research Alliance are united in calling on governments, health services, researchers, funders and consumers to work with the pain sector to create a contemporary, nationally coordinated approach to pain outcomes measurement that is sustainable, interoperable and centred on the needs of people living with pain.

Pain must remain visible. Because what is not measured is too often ignored—and millions of Australians and New Zealanders living with pain deserve better.

Link to Full Statement in Members Resources (NZPS Documents)