Dr Simone De Morgan is a Senior Research Fellow/Senior Lecturer at the General Practice Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health, at the University of Sydney. Simone is a primary care researcher focusing on interdisciplinary health professional education related to chronic pain and better models of care for adults and adolescents with chronic pain. Simone has been the OPEN Program Manager from May 2020 to September 2025 providing oversight of the OPEN workstreams. Simone is involved in advocacy at federal and state levels related to chronic pain.
Slater H, Jordan JE, O’Sullivan PB, Schütze R, Goucke R, Chua J, Browne A, Horgan B, De Morgan S, Briggs AM. “Listen to me, learn from me”: a priority setting partnership for shaping interdisciplinary pain training to strengthen chronic pain care. PAIN 2022;163(11):e1145-e1163.
This paper explored the care-seeking priorities of people living with chronic pain and carers and how can these shape interdisciplinary workforce training to improve high-value pain care. The “listen to me, learn from me” framework of 44 empirically-derived pain care priorities reflected strong multistakeholder consensus for what is most important to Australian people living with chronic pain and those supporting them, when seeking pain care. This framework underpins the OPEN pain training, ensuring that our training efforts remain faithfully focused on supporting person-centred pain care.
De Morgan S, Blyth FM, Slater H, Walker P, Daly A, Berryman C, Burke A, Nicholas MK, Furlan AD, Lallo C, Stinton J. Leveraging technologies to upskill primary care providers in person-centred pain care. PAIN50 Supplemental Issue 2025.
This perspective paper discusses the potential to leverage technologies such as Project ECHO (synchronous) and eLearning pain training (asynchronous) to increase accessibility of pain education for primary care providers. The paper also highlights emerging areas of interest for education and research such as blended synchronous and asynchronous pain education; the use of AI tools to create personalised and engaging eLearning experiences; and consumers as partners in the development, implementation and evaluation of digitally enabled pain education.
De Morgan S, Walker P, Blyth FM, Daly A, Burke AL, Nicholas MK. A technology-enabled collaborative learning model (Project ECHO) to upskill primary care providers in best practice pain care. Australian Journal of Primary Health. 2024 Dec 19;30(6).
This study evaluated the South Australian Chronic Pain ECHO Network and found that the ECHO Network model was an acceptable and effective interdisciplinary education model for upskilling primary care providers in best practice pain care aligned to a patient-centred, biopsychosocial approach to pain management. However, the study also found that participants perceived barriers to translating this knowledge into practice at the clinical, service and system levels.
De Morgan S, Walker P, Blyth FM, Nicholas M, Wilson A. Community-based pain programs commissioned by primary health networks: key findings from an online survey and consultation with program managers. Australian journal of primary health. 2022 Mar 22;28(4):303-14.
This study described current Primary Health Network (PHN) community-based pain programs; assessed their alignment to key elements and implementation enablers of pain programs identified by an expert consensus process; and described PHN pain program adaptations during the COVID-19 pandemic.
De Morgan S, Walker P, Blyth FM, Marks L, Rychetnik L, Nicholas M, Sanders D, Wilson A. Health and service needs, priorities and initiatives of primary health networks related to chronic pain. Australian Journal of Primary Health. 2022 Jun 24;28(5):417-27.
This study reviewed Primary Health Networks (PHN) needs assessments across Australia (N=31); and consulted with PHN executive-level staff and program managers to understand the needs and priorities of PHNs related to chronic pain. Chronic pain was identified as a health and/or service need by approximately half of PHNs. Among existing PHN practice, two exemplar evidence-based initiatives suitable for scale-up across PHNs in Australia were identified: multidisciplinary community-based pain programs, and an online health professional capacity-building initiative, Project ECHO (chronic pain). This study also highlighted that PHNs recognising chronic pain as a distinct condition in PHN needs analysis and data collection would lead to more dedicated funding.
Walker P, Cornell S, De Morgan S, Bonner C, Blyth FM. Chronic pain and cardiovascular disease prevention in primary care: a review of Australian primary health network needs assessments. Australian Health Review. 2021 Oct 12;46(1):70-7.
This study reviewed Primary Health Network needs assessments across Australia (N=31) and found that prevention-related issues were frequently identified for cardiovascular disease but not for chronic pain and highlights missed opportunities for earlier intervention for chronic pain.
