The Patient‑Oriented Pain Therapy (P.O.S.T.) project was carried out as a consortium effort led by the University Hospital Right of the Isar of the Technical University of Munich, specifically its Neurosurgery Clinic and Polyclinic, together with the Technical Information Library in Hannover. The project was funded under the code 13GW0536D and aimed to establish the clinical foundations and operational conditions for a next‑generation fully implantable infusion pump to be used in chronic pain management. The work was divided into two parts: the first focused on defining clinical requirements, assessing potential risks, and preparing a feasibility study; the second concentrated on interdisciplinary definition of core clinical parameters and risk assessment for the P.O.S.T. system.

In the technical and scientific domain, the team identified a set of pain‑related scales and quality‑of‑life questionnaires that could be integrated into the implantable pump’s software. These instruments were re‑evaluated and adapted to the specific needs of the P.O.S.T. system, allowing for continuous, in‑vivo data collection during therapy. The system’s design incorporates real‑time monitoring of drug delivery and patient‑reported outcomes, which is expected to provide clinicians with objective evidence of treatment efficacy and long‑term trends. By capturing both physiological and subjective data, the P.O.S.T. platform aims to support individualized therapy plans that are tailored to each patient’s somatic profile. The project also explored the use of electronic questionnaires as an additional tool for assessing life quality, thereby enriching the data set available for clinical decision‑making.

Risk assessment was a central component of the study. The consortium developed a P.O.S.T.–specific clinical‑medical risk matrix that considered complications related to implantation, device malfunction, and patient‑specific factors such as comorbidities and psychological status. Psychoanalytic test procedures were discussed to refine the classification of pain syndromes and to identify patients who would benefit most from a permanent implantable pump. The team also examined the frequency of outpatient visits required for device management, the re‑evaluation of therapeutic success or failure, and potential pitfalls in integrating the system into routine clinical practice. Although the project was terminated before the transfer to an animal model, the groundwork laid in risk identification and parameter definition provides a blueprint for future clinical trials.

Collaboration across disciplines was a hallmark of the project. Regular correspondence among clinicians, engineers, and researchers facilitated the exchange of ideas on how best to embed standardized pain scales and questionnaires into the application layer of the implantable pump. The consortium’s structure allowed for a comprehensive review of clinical requirements, ensuring that the final design would be both technically robust and clinically relevant. The project’s timeframe extended from initial literature reviews and risk assessments to the development of a standardized clinical model, but the planned transition to preclinical animal testing was not realized due to early project termination.

In summary, the P.O.S.T. project established a framework for a fully implantable infusion pump that integrates continuous monitoring, patient‑reported outcomes, and risk assessment into a single platform. While specific performance metrics were not reported, the system’s design promises improved quality of life for chronic pain patients by enabling data‑driven, individualized therapy. The collaborative effort among the University Hospital Right of the Isar, the Technical Information Library in Hannover, and other partners set the stage for future clinical studies that will validate the system’s effectiveness and safety in real‑world settings.