Background: Chronic musculoskeletal pain is among the most significant burdens to society. Despite years of research on effective interventions for managing chronic musculoskeletal (MSK) pain, most interventions have not reached clinical practice, underlining the significant implementation gap. Hence, understanding existing barriers and facilitators for implementing interventions may add crucial insights to guide future implementation efforts. This study aimed to identify barriers and facilitators for implementing interventions for managing patients with chronic MSK pain across healthcare settings. Methods: We conducted a scoping review guided by the approach developed the Joanna Briggs Institute. The search was conducted in MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, PubMed, and PsycINFO from inception to December, 2023. We included peer-reviewed qualitative studies exploring perspectives of implementing interventions for patients living with chronic MSK pain (aged 18+ years) and healthcare professionals (HCPs) in any healthcare setting, published within the last 20 years. Quantitative studies and studies in languages other than English were excluded. Two authors independently selected the studies and extracted the data. We used General Inductive Approach to analyze the included studies. Secondly, we mapped the extracted data items to the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) to identify prevalent and salient barriers and challenges across the included studies. Results: From 18.220 records, we included 22 studies involving 307 HCPs and 76 patients. Studies from all healthcare sectors were represented. Six major themes and six sub-themes were identified. The major themes were: 1) Long way from usual care, 2) Trust and commitment, 3) Support, 4) Time and finance, 5). Knowledge and skills and 6) What patients want. Across both groups, the TDF domain "Environmental Context and Resources" was the most frequently reported barrier and facilitator for implementing the intervention (Barriers: HCP n = 84, 23.5%; patient n = 15, 4.2%; Facilitators: HCP n = 44, 16.6%; patient n = 10, 3.8%). Conclusion: This scoping review identified barriers and facilitators to implementing interventions for the management of chronic musculoskeletal pan across individual, organizational, and political levels. Our analysis identified barriers including time constraints, low reimbursement rates, and insufficient support, while facilitators centered on leadership, communication, and social networks were identified. Targeted strategies addressing these barriers and facilitators are critical to enhancing sustainable and effective implementation in clinical practice in order to improve care of chronic musculoskeletal pain.

The authors have declared no competing interest.

This study did not receive any funding.

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All data produced in the present study are available upon reasonable request to the authors.