NEWS RELEASE - MARCH 1, 2011

For more information, contact:
Dionne Dougall-Bass, 888-969-7446, dionne@burnesscommunications.com
Nick Seaver, 301-652-1558, nseaver@burnesscommunications.com

MAYDAY PAIN & SOCIETY FELLOWSHIP:
2011 APPLICATION DEADLINE EXTENDED TO JULY 1, 2011

Six New Fellows to Join Community of Experts Advocating for the Pain Management Field

Apply online at www.maydayfellows.org

WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 13, 2011) The Mayday Fund, a New York City foundation dedicated to alleviating the incidence, degree, and consequence of human physical pain, announced today that it will extend the application season for the 2011 Mayday Pain & Society Fellowship; A Media & Policy Fellows Initiative to Friday, July 1, 2011. This is the seventh year of the program, which is designed to equip physicians, nurses, pharmacists, social workers, scientists, policy experts, and legal scholars in pain management with the necessary skills to become effective advocates and spokespeople about pain issues in the United States and Canada.

Developing their communications skills through the Fellowship, the six experts chosen will be poised to move the field forward with their willingness to educate and work with the media, policymakers, advocates, and health and business leaders. Six Fellows are chosen each year, and the Fellowship program runs through 2012.

The Fellowship Program is steered by an Advisory Committee made up of some of the nation's leading experts in the field. Russell K. Portenoy, MD, Chairman of the Department of Pain Medicine and Palliative Care at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City, chairs the committee. Joining the committee this year for the first time is Carmen R. Green, MD, Professor of Anesthesiology, Obstetrics & Gynecology, and Health Management & Policy at the University of Michigan, whose clinical and research interest is in disparities in pain. She was a member of the inaugural class of the Mayday Fellowship, and following that became a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow in 2006. (A complete list of Advisory Committee members is included.)

Once selected, the six Mayday Fellows will attend a three-day training in Washington, D.C. on October 24-26, 2010 to develop skills in connecting with local and national media, writing blogs and commentary, building relationships with university public affairs and government relations leadership, and talking with federal and state elected officials and other policymakers. They will also learn how to deliver messages through new online media. Each Fellow will have five months of coaching with a communications officer to track progress on their plans and engage in advocacy outreach.

Past Mayday Fellows have been successful in advocating for the pain field. Among their achievements, some have been interviewed for live media; served as advisors to producers working on pain segments; been accepted to a policy post on Capitol Hill; advanced the conversation about pain management in policy circles; published editorials and letters to the editor in local, regional and national media and trade publications, such as pain and other medical journals; and mentored junior colleagues in the skills needed to effectively communicate, both generally and with the media. Among the 36 Fellows now active, most regularly use the tools they received in training to advance their advocacy goals.

“Millions of adults and children suffer from pain each day. The problem is so pervasive that it is now a serious public health issue, and for years the Fellowship has created a national community of advocates calling for improved pain management,” Portenoy said. “This new season of Fellows will have the opportunity to raise the level of discourse and continue bringing about real change in the field and for people living in pain.”

The Fellows will develop skills to advocate and communicate on many of the pain issues they know most closely, including pediatric pain, chronic pain, the treatment of pain with prescription pain medications, non-medical treatment for pain, the use of palliative care to treat pain, pain policy, clinical and basic science research on pain, disparities in treating pain, and providers’ roles in assessing and treating pain.

Candidates must be accomplished experts, clinicians or researchers in pain management, and able and willing to devote a significant amount of time to using the skills learned in the Fellowship. They must show an interest in going beyond their professional pursuits to inspire change and make an impact on the pain field.

Those interested can apply online at www.maydayfellows.org

Established in 1992, the Mayday Fund is dedicated to further Shirley Steinman Katzenbach's commitment to social and medical causes. Her special interest in the treatment of pain forms the core of the Fund's mission. Over the last 19 years, Mayday has supported many different projects, among them, surveys of public attitudes to pain and its treatment, role model and documentation programs, assistance to public and professional advocacy groups, and clinical and academic research.

On the Advisory Committee for the Mayday Pain & Society Fellowship, in addition to Chair Russell K. Portenoy, MD, and Carmen R. Green, MD, are: James N. Campbell, MD, Executive-in-Residence at InterWest Partners, CEO of Arcion Therapeutics, Inc. and Professor of Neurosurgery, Johns Hopkins University; Scott M. Fishman, MD, Chief, Division of Pain Medicine in the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine and Professor of Anesthesiology, University of California, Davis; Kathleen M. Foley, MD, Medical Director of the International Palliative Care Initiative of the Public Health Program, Open Society Institute and Attending Neurologist in the Department of Neurology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; Sandra H. Johnson, JD, Interim Dean , Saint Louis University School of Law; Patrick John McGrath, PhD, Vice President, Research at IWK Health Centre and Professor of Psychology, Pediatrics and Psychiatry at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada; and Lonnie Zeltzer, MD, Director of Pediatric Pain Program and Professor of Pediatrics, Anesthesiology, Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles.

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