Amidst some of the great challenges we’ve seen this year, we have continued to learn so much from each of you. There has been substantial innovation and progress when it comes to how we can effectively and equitably care for individuals with pain.

This year included important presentations and discussions about novel digital technologies for pain and included patients in the focus. We learned more about successes in scaling multimodal, transdisciplinary pain care and talked about rethinking the way we’ve known pain care so that it can be integrated across the whole person and their whole life.

AACIPM will be making some changes in 2024 to leverage our collective work and unique role in this space. We will be calling on all of you to continue participating in this work – by leaning into what you are doing – so that we can better coordinate and accelerate the translation of what we know into what we can do for people in all our communities.

Wishing you peace, love and light from the AACIPM family to yours…

AACIPM Enduring Resources For You

The AACIPM team is proud to remain the only initiative focused on advancing access to equitable, whole-person, multimodal pain care by connecting key stakeholders where the rubber meets the road – people with pain, providers, payors, advocates, purchasers, academia, policymakers, and industry innovators.

We have provided you with no-cost, high-quality symposia, and countless other enduring resources, updates, tools, connections, and engagement opportunities for the past 4 years and counting.

On December 7, we hosted a webinar with the US Pain Foundation titled, Exploring Equitable, Scalable, Value-Based Pain Care Delivery. Catch the replay at your convenience via the button below.

Value-Based Care

Collaborative Webinars

New AACIPM Sponsorship Opportunities

Along with you, the Alliance to Advance Comprehensive Integrative Pain Management (AACIPM) invests in promoting equitable, scalable, multimodal pain care.

No one can do this alone. The time is now to get on the same page with action steps.

In the next year and beyond, we are planning quarterly networking meetings, high-quality webinars, purchaser collaboration, collective responses to federal/state policies, monthly newsletters, partnership education, social media and more. See more details about our past and future work.

Your commitment will support this work to advance access to equitable, scalable, person-centered, value-based pain care.

Read more about sponsorship here. Please contact Amy Goldstein to discuss this further.

National Updates

NIH Releases Report on Pain Management Research from the HEAL Initiative

Researchers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have released an overview of the pain research programs within the NIH Helping to End Addiction Long-term Initiative, or NIH HEAL Initiative.

The NIH HEAL Initiative, has consistently aimed to improve the quality of life and reduce pain by supporting the development of new, effective, non-addictive treatments for acute and chronic pain as a key component of addiction prevention. Over the past five years, the NIH HEAL Initiative pain programs have included projects related to: cross-cutting research, such as levering existing and real-time opioid and pain management data and training the next generation of researchers; preclinical and translational research in pain management, such as development and optimization of non-addictive therapies to treat pain; and, clinical research, such as The Back Pain Consortium Research Program (BACPAC) and Integrative management of chronic pain and OUD for whole recovery (IMPOWR).

To date, HEAL-funded studies have advanced several promising pain therapeutic new drugs and devices and have patented novel targets for chronic pain, inflammatory and visceral pain, and migraine.

FDA Approves First Test to Help Identify Elevated Risk of Developing OUD

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first test that uses DNA to assess whether certain individuals may have an elevated risk of developing opioid use disorder (OUD).

The new test has sparked serious concerns from various experts, including numerous clinical pharmacists, which are being discussed in public forums, such as LinkedIn.

In August 2022, the FDA introduced the FDA Overdose Prevention Framework. Through the Framework, the agency has taken steps to address the drug overdose crisis and substance use disorder.

SAMHSA Seeks to Fund Programs Addressing Behavioral Health Challenges in Local Communities

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has announced notices of funding opportunities for grant programs that address behavioral health challenges in local communities by preventing substance use initiation, reducing the progression of substance use, and addressing other related concerns. Totaling $74.4 million, the grant opportunities include:

Expansion and Sustainability of the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children with Serious Emotional Disturbances (CMHI) to provide resources to improve the mental health outcomes for children and youth, birth through age 21, at risk for or who have serious emotional disturbances, and their families.
Tribal Behavioral Health to prevent and reduce suicidal behavior and substance use/misuse, prevent overdose, reduce the impact of trauma, and promote mental health among American Indian/Alaska Native youth, up to and including age 24, by building a healthy network of systems, services, and partnerships that impact youth.
Strategic Prevention Framework – Partnerships for Success for States to reduce the onset and progression of substance misuse and its related problems by supporting the development and delivery of state and community substance misuse prevention and mental health promotion services.
Strategic Prevention Framework – Partnerships for Success for Communities, Local Governments, Universities, Colleges, and Tribes/Tribal Organizations to reduce the onset and progression of substance misuse and its related problems by supporting the development and delivery of community-based substance misuse prevention and mental health promotion services.

Applications deadlines for these grants range from February to March 2024.
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