S. 5041: Advancing Research for Chronic Pain Act of 2026

This bill would direct the federal government to improve how it studies and shares information about chronic pain, defined as pain that lasts longer than three months.

What the bill requires

• Federal health officials, working with the CDC, NIH, and other agencies, would use existing federal research data to better measure how common chronic pain is and where it comes from, including pain related to injuries, surgeries, diseases, and other conditions.
• The government would identify gaps in current research and collect more deidentified population data from medical claims and surveys to fill those gaps.
• That data collection would focus on topics such as:
  • how many people have specific pain conditions;
  • demographic information like age, race, ethnicity, gender, and location;
  • risk factors, including genetic and environmental factors;
  • how chronic pain is diagnosed and how it progresses;
  • the direct and indirect costs of pain, including missed work and disability;
  • how chronic pain and related conditions are detected, managed, and treated;
  • co-occurring conditions such as depression, anxiety, and substance use disorders;
  • the effectiveness of evidence-based treatments;
  • the use and outcomes of non-opioid and opioid-sparing treatments used together in a multidisciplinary way.
• The Secretary would work with patients, patient advocates, researchers, clinicians, health information technology experts, and others to develop standard definitions and methods for chronic pain population research so data can be compared more easily across studies.
• Federal findings, research standards, and available data sources related to chronic pain would be shared publicly.

Public website: the Chronic Pain Information Hub

The bill would require CDC to create a public website called the Chronic Pain Information Hub. This site would:

• collect and summarize federal data sources, indicators, and peer-reviewed research on chronic pain;
• provide an updated summary of CDC’s completed, ongoing, and planned data collection and analysis work on chronic pain;
• turn research findings into practical clinical tools and resources;
• offer recommendations on how to close research gaps and improve research standards;
• be updated every year with new findings from the previous year.

Disclosure of conflicts of interest

If outside individuals or organizations helping with this work receive payments or other transfers of value from drug or device manufacturers that would normally have to be disclosed under federal transparency rules, they would have to tell the Secretary about it. The Secretary would then make those disclosures public.

Reporting to Congress

Within 2 years of enactment, the Secretary of Health and Human Services would have to report to Congress on:

• how the information hub was developed and maintained;
• what information it makes available;
• the data gaps that were found and the plans to address them;
• how feedback from collaborators is collected; and
• what feedback was received.

Funding

The bill authorizes Congress to appropriate whatever sums are needed for fiscal years 2026 through 2030 to carry out these activities.

Relevant Companies

None found.