Innovation & Progress in Person-Centered Pain Management

May 13-14, 2020

Register now to join all or part of the Alliance to Advance Comprehensive Integrative Pain Management’s (AACIPM) virtual symposium. This two-day symposium includes a careful sampling of the nation’s leading examples of innovation and progress which support advancing a cultural shift to evidence-informed, whole-person-oriented pain management featuring multi-disciplinary, team-based approaches.

Guest Spotlight: Bob Twillman

The COVID-19 pandemic has produced substantial changes in many aspects of our lives, as witnessed by the soaring unemployment rate, oil prices sinking so low that companies actually were paying people to take oil from them, and the widespread shutdown of social activities, among other things. For those of us who are healthcare providers, aside from changes directly related to treating COVID-19 patients, perhaps the most dramatic change has been the massive surge in use of telehealth technology to care for patients.

Connecting the Dots

KHC Kickstarts Employer Conversation on Advancing Comprehensive, Integrative, Evidence-Based Pain Management

Kentuckiana Health Collaborative (KHC) hosted an excellent symposium that included AACIPM Director, Amy Goldstein, sharing updates about the national movement to transform pain care and moderating a panel of local providers to explore what is necessary to make individualized, multidisciplinary, and multimodal pain management a reality. Kavitha Reddy, MD, Veterans Health Administration, and Christine Goertz, PhD, DC, Duke University, also presented their exciting progress.

Announcements

May 8 Webinar on Lessons from the Opioid Crisis to Feature AHRQ Experts 

Several Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) experts will be part of a webinar on May 8 from 12 to 1:30 p.m. EST, about lessons learned from the opioid crisis. The webinar, hosted by the National Interoperability Collaborative, will feature AHRQ speakers who will present practical guidelines and resources for using evidence to combat the opioid crisis. They will also share evidence syntheses on what works to manage pain and opioid use disorder, and tools to integrate the latest guidelines at the point of care. AHRQ presenters include medical officer Elisabeth Kato, MD, program officer Suchitra Iyer, PhD, and staff fellow Roland Gamache, PhD, MBA. Learn more details about the webinar and how to register.

Management of Acute and Chronic Pain: Request for Comment
 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced the opening of a docket to obtain comments on pain management from patients, their family members or caregivers, and health care providers who care for people with pain. Written comments must be received on or before June 16, 2020.

Traditional, Complementary and Integrative Health and Medicine COVID-19 Support Registry

The Integrative COVID-19 Support Registry – under the direction of Ryan Bradley ND, MPH at Helfgott Research Institute at the National University of Natural Medicine – provides an opportunity for integrative practitioners (recognizing licensed and unlicensed professions including energy medicine) to submit input and data as patients with COVID-19 diagnoses or symptoms are seen and treated. This could be a great, unified resource for the entire field. 

US Pain Foundation Hosts “Finding Balance During Crisis” May 4th

The US Pain Foundation is hosting a webinar with pain psychologist Shamin Ladhani, PsyD. Dr. Ladhani will discuss strategies for staying mentally well during times of crisis.

AACIPM at Work

See what AACIPM is doing this Spring

May 13-14 – Innovation & Progress in Person-Centered Pain Management Symposium – AACIPM

June 14-17 – June Conference Nat’l Assn of Social Workers

Relevant Reading

• Chronic Pain and Coronavirus, Practical Pain Management, April 30, 2020
• Comparison of a Pain Tolerability Question With the Numeric Rating Scale for Assessment of Self-reported Chronic Pain, JAMA Network Open, April 20, 2020
• Chasing the Genes Behind Pain, Knowable, April 15, 2020
• COVID-19 Policy Recommendations for OUD, Pain, Harm Reduction, AMA, April 14, 2020
• How Social Distancing May Hurt People with Chronic Pain, Psychology Today, April 14, 2020
• COVID-19: Adapting Your Practice, APTA, April 9, 2020
• Study: Physical Therapy Bests Steroid Injections for Treatment of Knee OA, APTA, PT in Motion, April 9, 2020
• Updated APTA Web Resources on Telehealth, Disaster Management Now Available, APTA, PT in Motion, April 7, 2020

Resources

• NEW! Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) – Effective Health Care Program
• NEW! American Academy of Pain Medicine (AAPM) – Pain Treatment Guidelines
• Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC) – Pain Management Toolkit
• HHS – HHS Guide for Clinicians on the Appropriate Dosage Reduction or Discontinuation of Long-Term Opioid Analgesics (Download the PDF)
• NCIPM – Breathing Techniques for Pain, Stress, Asthma, Anxiety and More
• NEW! painTRAINER – Interactive, online program based on scientific research
• NEW! HealthFlix Online – Self-isolate without isolating yourself

Message from the Director

Our team and advisors have been busy recalibrating to change our invitation-only, in-person Pain Policy Congress to become an interactive online symposium! This two-day interactive symposium is shaping up to be an incredible resource of leading examples in innovation and progress in person-centered pain management, as well as thought-provoking discussions leading to action steps around shared priorities.

Please take a moment to check out all that is in this newsletter.  Bob Twillman wrote about his experience with telehealth during covid-19 caring for people with pain and this topic will be discussed at our symposium.  You will also find important and timely information in announcements, resources and relevant reading for all stakeholders – don’t miss out on taking action to do your part!

Onward and Upward!
Amy

P.S. Looking forward to “seeing” you on May 13-14 – Register now and share this resource with your interested networks!