Have you ever felt the need to communicate your experience with chronic pain and/or medical care? An online, anonymous survey now lets you do just that.

The physician-patient interface can leave patients frustrated. This at times seems especially true for patients with chronic illness for which no cure seems possible. Hoping to manage complex, subtle, and shifting symptoms that can leave them depressed and socially isolated, patients with chronic illness sometimes also have to carry the burden of unsympathetic friends, family members, and/or medical professionals.

Among the illnesses for which such complaints are common are the chronic pain conditions fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, and interstitial cystitis. For examples of failed communication, have a look at the videos posted on the Prostatitis Surgery home page.

Patients with chronic pain are being invited to share their experiences via a survey that does not ask them to identify themselves. The purpose of the survey, says its author Susan Bilheimer, is to help guide her research and to help express the level of need for understanding and help. According to her press release, the survey is being supported by the  National Vulvodynia Association and the Interstitial Cystitis Association.

Anybody with an interest in participating may do so by clicking here.