PREDICT-DOLOR VE: Validation of a Structured Triage Protocol for Chronic Pain

Chronic pain affects a substantial proportion of the adult population in Venezuela and Latin America, yet patients often face long delays and inconsistent referral pathways before reaching the appropriate specialist. PREDICT-DOLOR VE addresses this gap through a structured, rule-based clinical decision support tool that integrates five validated instruments: the Numeric Rating Scale (NRS), the Douleur Neuropathique 4 (DN4; Neuropathic Pain Diagnostic Questionnaire) questionnaire, the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI), the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS), and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9). Based on responses to these instruments, the tool generates one of four triage recommendations: Level 1 (management in primary care), Level 2 (referral to physiatry or neurology), Level 3 (priority specialist evaluation, including psychology referral when indicated), or Level 4 (evaluation for neurosurgical procedure by a multidisciplinary pain committee). The platform operates on Google Forms and Google Sheets at no cost to patients or healthcare facilities. This prospective multicenter diagnostic accuracy study will enroll 120 consecutive adult patients with chronic pain (duration of 3 months or longer) across three referral centers in Venezuela. Each participant will complete the PREDICT-DOLOR VE assessment. Independently, a panel of three specialists (neurosurgeon, neurologist, and physiatrist) blinded to the algorithm's recommendation will evaluate each patient using standard clinical assessment and reach a consensus triage classification. The primary outcome is the concordance, measured by Cohen's kappa coefficient, between the algorithm's recommendation and the specialist panel's consensus classification. Secondary outcomes include the time from first consultation to appropriate specialist evaluation, system usability among primary care physicians, and patient satisfaction with the triage process.