NFLPA Releases Updated Pain Management Guide

The National Football League Players Association (NFLPA), the union for professional football players in the NFL, has released its updated Pain Management Guide. The new guide, which has been in development for a number of years, covers a wide range of topics including: physical and restorative modalities, complementary and alternative therapies, medication, interventional therapies, regenerative therapies, pain and sleep, cannabis, psychotherapies, and more.

“The best approach to treating pain is choosing a combination of options provided by pros who collaborate on your care. Evaluate the risks and benefits of treatments and create a personal plan to maximize your performance through effective pain management.”

Look for AACIPM’s spotlight on NFLPA Pain Management Committee Co-Chair, David Nagel MD, next month!

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ICYMI

AACIPM Releases Brief on Pediatric Pain to Raise Awareness for this Underserved Population

In an effort to combat the dual crises of undertreated chronic pain, which affects one in four children and adolescents worldwide, and a national emergency in children’s mental health, AACIPM has developed Pediatric Pain: Promoting Access to Whole Person, Multimodal Pain Management for Children and Adolescents.

The new resource, available both as a webpage and a printable handout, aims to explain the connection between chronic pain and mental health, how these health issues can affect children into adulthood, and makes the case for increased utilization of Whole Person care for children living with pain. Most importantly, the resource contains: extensive evidence-based tools and educational opportunities for health care providers; care options and support groups for patients and families; and, evidentiary support that can be used when discussing this issue with policymakers.

Action Requested by End of 2022: Please Review, Offer Feedback, and Send Suggestions for Expert Presenters for Future Webinar on Topic

In the spirit of continued collaboration and inclusivity, we ask for your thoughtful feedback so that we can identify opportunities to connect more dots to raise awareness and advance better care for our children, adolescents and teens.

Read Brief

Offer Feedback

Recording Available: AACIPM Launched New Series on Innovation & Progress

With a focus to connect the dots to advance equitable, whole person, multimodal, integrative pain management, AACIPM has launched a series that will include panel discussions, interviews, and resources that explore some cutting-edge innovations related to pain care with a particular focus to support those interested in integrating more complementary and integrative health (CIH) and behavioral therapies into their practice, payment designs, and policies.

The first session in this series, “Innovation in Advancing Equitable, Whole Person, Multimodal Pain Care,” focused on advancements in multimodal pain care from the perspective of public and private insurers, industry, healthcare providers, and people with pain. We discussed new data and evidence that highlights equity imbalance, and related opportunities to address these challenges.

Innovation-and-Progress---Panelists---eBlast

WEBINAR & MATERIALS

National Updates

AACIPM Participated in the NCCIH Stakeholder Meeting for Research on Whole Person Health

As a first step in furthering research on whole person health, the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) along with a number of others, held a workshop on Methodological Approaches for Whole Person Research in September 2021. This workshop highlighted the types of research studies needed to explore the fundamental science of interconnected systems, investigate multicomponent interventions or therapeutic systems, examine the impact of these interventions on multisystem or multiorgan outcomes, and explore methodologies from diverse fields that could be applied to advance whole person research.

On October 17-18, 2022, AACIPM was invited to attend NCCIH Stakeholder Meeting for Research on Whole Person Health and voice our research interests. We emphasized six key points to help connect more dots:

We need agreement around quality standards and outcome measurements for CIH for pain
Pragmatic trials, CER, utilization data & cost analyses are critically important but ample quality studies are not available. For example, AHRQ acknowledged the paucity of evidence available during a recent review on pain management which led to sweeping statements based on so few evidentiary resources.
We need collaboration on new funding opportunities to assess CIH approaches in the safety net, such as FQHCs.
It is necessary for implementation science to embed whole person health into clinical settings so that findings can be translated into real-world settings
Novel mobile health and telehealth-based self-management systems and devices are integral especially with data showing a near absence of integrative workforce available in low income, non-white zip codes.
We urge NCCIH to develop targeted funding opportunities that include collaboration with and dissemination across many key stakeholders.

Full Comments

VA Releases Compilation of Pain-related Health Services, Research, and Development

Citing the VA’s commitment to the management of chronic and acute pain, with over ¾ of all veterans experiencing trouble with pain control, the VA has released a compilation of information to help health care professionals. The compilation includes pain-related health information in the form of written publications, publication briefs, studies, briefs and other newsletters, cyberseminars, videos, podcasts, and web links.

ICYMI

CMS Releases New Booklet Outlining Chronic Care Management Services
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has released both an informational booklet outlining the changes to its Chronic Care Management Services and its annual update to Medicare & You: The Official U.S. Government Medicare Handbook (2023).

Federal Funds Available Related to Pain Management and Telehealth Research
The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health is inviting applications to focus on pain-related research topic areas that include remotely delivered interventions.

PCORI Seeks Applications and Nominations for Advisory Panels
The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) will continue to accept applications and nominations until March 31, 2023 for its five Advisory Panels:

Clinical Effectiveness and Decision Science
Healthcare Delivery and Disparities Research
Patient Engagement
Clinical Trials
Rare Disease

Message from the Director

Wishing everyone more treats than tricks on this Halloween!

I hope all of you take a moment to check out our updated website and share any comments you might have. We have a growing repository of resources built for each of you and your input is what keeps things progressing.

Also, we are collecting your feedback on the new pediatric resource and hope to continue to hear from many of you. We know it’s a topic of interest and we want this resource to be the most useful for your networks. Additionally, we are excited to be supporting an FDA REMS (Risk Evaluation & Mitigation Strategy) education initiative to ensure that the patient voice is properly included within the educational modules. Watch for future updates on all these things and more.

Onward and Upward!
Amy