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The Institute of Medicine Releases Report on Chronic Pain in America
| The Institute of Medicine released a report on chronic pain in America in June 2011, "Relieving Pain in America: A Blueprint for Transforming Prevention, Care, Education, and Research." From the IOM's Summary: "Chronic pain affects at least 116 million American adults--more than the total affected by heart disease, cancer, and diabetes combined. It costs the nation up to $635 billion each year in medical treatment and lost productivity. Pain is a uniquely individual and subjective experience that depends on a variety of biological, psychological, and social factors, and different population groups experience pain differently. Because pain varies from person to person, health care providers should tailor pain care to each person's experience, and self-management of pain should be promoted." The full report is available for download. |
2011 Mayday Fellow Places Op-ed in St. Petersburg Times
The St. Petersburg Times published an op-ed by Mayday Fellow David Craig that looked at the impact of pharmacies denying patients pain medications in response to the issue of "pill mills." Highlighting the case of CVS pharmacies in Florida refusing to fill prescriptions for pain medications from some doctors, Dave told the story of Jane, a cancer patient who struggled to find her medications.
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"I don't want to take oxycodone anymore because every time I go to the pharmacy they don't have it, and they treat me like a drug addict," she told me from her hospital bed while holding the youngest of her two children in her arms. Jane is a 40-year-old married woman, a veteran of the Marine Corps and a mother of two small children. She suffers severe abdominal pain from a large tumor in her liver. After several cycles of chemotherapy and surgery to remove the tumor, her cancer is still there. Looking forward to being discharged the next day, she was focused on finding a local pharmacy that would fill her oxycodone prescription after going home. |  |
Unfortunately, her story is one that I hear from my cancer patients almost on a weekly basis. "We don't have it" and "We don't carry that" seem to be the new slogans in many Florida pharmacies. | |
2011 Mayday Fellow Places Guest Blog Post on The Hill's Congress Blog
Read 2011 Fellow Bob Twillman's response to the recent release of a CDC report looking at the dramatic increase in the number of deaths connected to prescription pain medication on The Hill's website. | "Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a report about 'the epidemic' of overdoses involving prescription opioid pain medicines (strong pain medicines like morphine, including oxycodone, hydrocodone, and others). The report blames rampant overprescribing by doctors and other professionals for the sharp uptick in deaths related to opioid abuse, leading the CDC to propose various solutions aimed primarily at reducing the supply of these medications. In reality, if Americans want to know where these misused medications are coming from, they need to look in the mirror – or more accurately the medicine cabinet behind the mirror. |
"In its report, CDC states that that 14,800 people died of overdoses in which prescription opioid pain medicines were present, an increase from about 4000 such cases in 1999. The CDC then argues that because this increase in deaths occurred while sales of these drugs increased, one caused the other. This is an easy conclusion to leap to – and one that the CDC has focused on in the past – but it doesn’t make that conclusion right. And what’s even more dangerous is proposing new policy based on unproven conclusions.
"This is not to say that there is no relationship - the report does not prove or disprove one - but it certainly means we must question their proposed solution. The CDC’s almost exclusive focus on reducing the number of prescriptions for these medicines overlooks the legitimate use of these medications. A recent Institute of Medicine report found that 116 million adults, roughly one in three people, live with chronic pain. This is pain that persists long after an injury that caused it has healed, or that is related to another chronic condition like arthritis. Some people I’ve treated face chronic pain that is so debilitating that they can no longer work. This unrelenting chronic pain robs people of their lives to a point where suicide can sometimes seem like the only way out..."
The Mayday Fund is proud to announce the selection of the 2011-2012 Mayday Fellows:
- David S. Craig, PharmD, BCPS,Clinical Pharmacist Specialist and Residency Director, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute
- Miriam O. Ezenwa, PhD, RN, Assistant Professor and Sickle Cell Scholar, University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Nursing
- Denise Harrison, PhD, Chair in Nursing Care of Children, Youth and Families, Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario and University of Ottawa
- Jennifer N. Stinson, RN, PhD, CPNP, Clinician Scientist and Assistant Professor, Hospital for Sick Children and University of Toronto
- Gregory W. Terman, MD, PhD, Professor of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine and the Graduate Program in Neurobiology and Behavior, University of Washington
- Robert Twillman, PhD, Director of Policy and Advocacy, American Academy of Pain Management
2010 Mayday Fellow Releases Quiz on Assessing Pain
| When she became a Mayday Fellow in 2010, one of Pat Tabloski’s goals was to educate nurse practitioners and other providers on how to adequately assess and manage their patients’ pain. She has now reached that goal with a new quiz that breaks down the myths that still exist about pain and offers tips on pain awareness. Read about Pat’s Fellowship experience and take the quiz in the Summer 2011 issue of Boston College’s School of Nursing publication, Voice. |  |
2010 Mayday Fellow Speaks at Prestigious Ted Conference
Watch Dr. Elliot Krane's ('10-'11 Fellow) Ted Talk in which he explains how pain can become a disease, and not just a symptom.
You can read more about Elliot's Ted Talk in our newest success story.
Watch Dr. William Zempsky ('08-'09 Fellow) describe his experience and the impact of the Mayday Pain & Society Fellowship:
2010 Mayday Fellow Published in The Boston Herald
Dr. Patricia Tabloski ('10-'11 Fellow), was just published in the Boston Herald.
"Let’s be honest. Discussing death or even thinking about death is difficult for most of us. But the recent death and farewell messages of Elizabeth Edwards remind us all in the middle of this holiday season that we are mortal and living out a limited number of precious days on this Earth.
"According to reports, her death was peaceful and pain-free. Her health care team informed her that further treatment for her cancer was unlikely to be successful.
"If only the circumstances of Elizabeth Edwards’ death could be the norm, but unfortunately this is not the case. While she died at home surrounded by her family and friends and without pain, thousands die alone and in pain. An Institute of Medicine report states that while improvements in the science of cancer care allow many people to live longer, the art of pain and symptom control has not kept pace, unfortunately resulting in a poor quality of life for many dying patients."
You can read her full opinion piece, "Death without distress," here.
During the 2010 Mayday Fellowship Workshop, New York Times personal health columnist Jane Brody joined the 2010-2011 Fellows to discuss her job as a journalist and how pain experts can effectively engage her in their work. With a track record of excellent coverage of pain mangement issues, Ms. Brody was able to offer both insight into the day-to-day of a journalist and explain the role an expert should play in journalism.
You can read a Q&A based on her presentation here.
Listen to Mayday Fellow Dr. Paul Christo ('08-'09 Fellow) discuss chronic pain on Maryland Morning on WYPR, the Maryland NPR affiliate.
Watch Mayday Fellow Dr. Steven Passik ('06-'07 Fellow) discuss the latest policy from the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). Passik told us,
“I have done several news spots in the last week, and today I did a satellite tour where I did TV and radio interviews about the ONDCP report for about 4 or 5 hours. Throughout the tour, I drew very heavily on our media training during the Mayday Fellowship.”
In 2009, the Mayday Fund created the Mayday Fund Special Committee on Pain and the Practice of Medicine. This 22-person Committee released A Call to Revolutionize Chronic Pain Care in America: An Opportunity in Health Care Reform, a report with 12 recommendations to improve the treatment of pain in the United States.
The Mayday Pain & Society Fellowship is happy to release the Pain Management Experts Guide. This guide serves as a tool to connect you with leading experts in the field of acute and chronic pain and pain managment. Our experts -- both former Fellows and advisory committee members -- are from the United States and Canada and are listed by subject area, disease, and condition. Click here to download a PDF of the full guide.
Anne Louise Oaklander, (2007-08) was among several researchers and doctors from the Deparments of Nerology at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital and the University of California, San Francisco that came together last October to examine and address the inadequate treatment of neuropathic pain. This group produced the report, "New Approaches to Neurological Pain: Planning for the Future," which identifies existing therapies for neuropathic pain and maps out a path for future research and education. Click here to download the full report.
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This website last updated November 2011