Institute of Pain Committee Appoints New Members

Seven members of the American Pain Society were appointed to the Institute of Medicine’s blue ribbon Pain Committee.

The IOM Pain Committee met on Jan. 4. of the seven appointees, three are past APS presidents.

"The appointment of seven APS members to the IOM Pain Committee is a great honor for our organization. I believe it reflects a high level of leadership that APS members in diverse professions provide in the field of pain and validates the relevance of our mission to increase knowledge about pain and transform public policy and clinical practice to reduce pain-related suffering," said APS President Seddon Savage, MD, in a statement.

The IOM Pain Committee was formed as a result of the health care reform package and the National Pain Care Policy Act, which APS helped develop and supported since it was its first introduction in 2003.

For the next six months, the committee will hold public and private sessions and will submit its final report to Congress in July.

The broad task for the IOM Pain Committee is to address the current state of science in pain research, patient care and education and explore new approaches to help advance the field. It is the first comprehensive, high-level government look at pain as a prominent public health problem in the United States. In its deliberations, the Committee will address pain as a biological, bio-behavioral and societal condition. Members will identify and discuss strategies that can be adopted to enhance training of pain researchers and how to advance basic, clinical and translational pain research to improve the diagnosis, treatment and management of pain.

The three former APS presidents serving on the IOM Committee are:

Charles Inturrisi, PhD, Weill Cornell University, APS President 2008-10

Richard Payne, MD, Duke University, APS President 2003-04

Dennis Turk, PhD, University of Washington, APS president, 2004-06

Other APS members on the Committee are:

Francis Keefe, PhD, Duke University

Robert Kerns, PhD, Yale University

Sean Mackey, MD, Stanford University

Lonnie Zeltzer, MD, UCLA

Keefe and Zeltzer are former APS officers, Kerns is the 2010 recipient of the APS John and Emma Bonica Public Services Award and Mackey's pain management group at Stanford received an APS Clinical Centers of Excellence Award in 2008.

Source: American Pain Society

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