Charting Chronicity: A Thematic Analysis of Clinical Pain Assessment Tools and Patient Documentation Design

This dissertation examines how chronic pain and the body in pain are framed in pain assessment scales and patient intake forms used across U.S. pain and spine clinics. Through thematic analysis, I explore how these tools represent kairos (qualitative time), chronos (quantitative time), and hexis (bodily state). I argue that while these clinical tools are efficient from a biomedical perspective, they frame pain as an acute, yet predictable problem in need of remedy. In doing so, these technical genres possess the agential power to perpetuate provider biases, reinforce stigma, and promote ableist conceptions of the body. Consequently, I propose that pain assessment documentation be enhanced through a Patient Experience Design (PXD) framework to better capture the embodied precarity and “flux” experienced by patients with chronic conditions. This study aims to highlight how current pain scales and intake forms contribute to disparities in pain assessment and clinician bias.