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APS Annual Meeting Highlights

Who Attended the Annual Scientific Meeting?
Fourteen hundred attendees represented 29 countries at the 2007 Annual Scientific Meeting in Washington, DC. Attendees reflected the multidisciplinary nature of the society’s membership—representing specialties included medicine (anesthesiology, neurology, physical medicine and rehabilitation, internal medicine), psychology, nursing, pharmacy, basic science, policy analysis, and others in which clinicians, researchers, educators, consultants, and administrators work.

The June E-News will feature even more updates from the annual meeting—including links to audio clips of the plenary sessions. Here are some highlights from this year’s special events.

Centers of Excellence Gala
APS hosted its first-ever Clinical Centers of Excellence (CCOE) in Pain Management Awards Gala on May 3 at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC.

The evening emphasized the CCOE’s mission—promoting multidisciplinary pain management, honoring the nation’s outstanding pain care programs, and recognizing high-quality patient care.

Nearly 100 programs applied for the distinction. Only U.S. based, multidisciplinary clinical programs that provide direct patient care and focus primarily on the treatment of pain were eligible for the award.

Judy Paice led the awards ceremony. She noted recurring attributes of the programs that received the 2007 awards. They “employ innovative approaches,” and the programs are “not afraid to try something new.” The programs also incorporate cognitive-behavioral therapies and other multidisciplinary modalities and use opioids and other pain medications appropriately.

The CCOE selection process included a diverse review panel, weighted scoring system, two rigorous rounds of reviews, three reviewers per application, and selection by the final review committee.

Congratulations are extended to this year’s award recipients:

• NYU Medical Center/Hospital for Joint Diseases
• Rosomoff Comprehensive Pain Center
• Brigham and Women’s Hospital
• UCSF Pain Management Center
• Cincinnati Children’s Hospital
• James A. Haley Veterans Affairs Hospital

NYU/Hospital for Joint Diseases is widely known for providing comprehensive pain care 24/7. Program director Christopher Gharibo, MD (front row), accepted the award on behalf of the team.

Rosomoff Comprehensive Pain Center was one of the first multidisciplinary centers in the U.S. Founder Hubert Rosomoff, MD DMedSc, and program director Renee Rosomoff, MBA RN, accepted the award on behalf of the Center.

Brigham and Women’s Hospital Pain Management Center is well recognized for its high-tech tools for pain management. The team accepted the award together on stage.

UCSF Pain Management Center and UCSF PainCARE focus on teaching busy doctors about pain care. Program Director Pamela Palmer, MD PhD, is shown here with team members who attended the gala.

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital specializes in creative pediatric pain care. The team accepted the award.

James A. Haley V.A. Hospital is the largest and most comprehensive pain center in VA system. Program director Michael Clark, PhD (shown here [at podium] with the team) will be the chair of the 2008 CCOE program.

Honorable mentions were awarded to Beth Israel Medical Center, University of Wisconsin Health, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, University of California–Davis, University of California–San Diego, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, and Oregon Health and Science University.

Special thanks are extended to the CCOE Awards Program Task Force Co-chairs Debra B. Gordon, MS RN FAAN, and Russell Portenoy, MD, and members Christine Miaskowski, PhD RN FAAN, Judith Paice, PhD RN, Lori A. Reisner, PharmD, Michael G. Byas-Smith, MD, Robert N. Jamison, PhD, and Steven J. Weisman, MD.

Acknowledgments
APS also thanks the final review committee co-chairs Dennis C. Turk, PhD, and Judith A. Paice, PhD RN FAAN, and members Michael G. Byas-Smith, MD, Mark Jensen, PhD, Lonnie Zeltzer, MD, and Steven J. Weisman, MD.

APS thanks the following corporate sponsors for their generous support of the CCOE program: Endo Pharmaceuticals, Abbott, Pfizer, Inc., Cephalon, Inc., Alpharma, Inc., King Pharmaceuticals, and Merck & Co, Inc.

Advocacy Visits
APS and American Academy of Pain Medicine (AAPM) leaders joined forces on Wednesday, May 2, to target Capitol Hill.

Leaders from both organizations met with legislative counselors Adam Chrisney and Bob Saner of Powers, Pyles, Sutter & Verville, PC for training about effective advocacy.

APS and AAPM leaders scheduled visits with their legislators. After a morning of training, they set out individually to make their visits.

Details about the APS advocacy program can be found online. APS members are encouraged to make their own visits and contact with their representatives. APS E-News will continue to report legislative updates.

Online Access to the Meeting
Did you miss one of the plenary lectures or symposia at the APS meeting in Washington, DC? Audio and slide presentations for selected lectures are now available on the APS Web site for meeting attendees' use. To access the recordings, click on the "Listen to session recordings and view handouts for the 26th Annual Scientific Meeting" link on the APS home page, www.ampainsoc.org or go directly to aps.confex.com/aps/2007/techprogram/meeting_2007.htm. Look for the blue/green ball icon indicating that a recording is available. You will need to enter your username (last name) and password (the last 6 digits of your meeting registration number) to access the recordings.

Fun Run/ Walk to Support the Dreams Campaign
Nearly 100 walkers and runners put on their panda t-shirts and gym shoes and hit the trails at the National Zoo.

Participants stretched to prepare for the 5K event to support the Dreams Campaign.

APS accepted a generous $100,000 donation from Endo Pharmaceuticals in support of the Dreams Campaign.

Exhibitors
APS extends appreciation to the exhibitors that participated in the 2007 program. Visit the APS Web site to find links to the 2007 exhibitors.

The Journal of Pain Highlights

The following highlights summarize selected articles from the May 2007 issue (volume 8, number 5).

Comorbidity of Obesity and Pain in a General Population: Results from the Southern Pain Prevalence Study
Holli C. Hitt, University of Alabama Birmingham; Robert C. McMillen, Tonya Thornton-Neaves and Arthur G. Crosby, Mississippi State University; and Karen Koch, North Mississippi Medical Center.

Obese adults are more likely to experience chronic pain than normal weight or underweight individuals, according to a study published in The Journal of Pain.

Researchers working on the Southern Pain Prevalence Study analyzed the relationship between body-mass index (BMI) and moderate to severe pain. Further, data collected for the study confirmed that obesity is a major health problem in the southeast; nearly 40% of the surveyed population is overweight and 30% considered obese.

Results in 3,637 study participants showed that as BMI increases, so does the likelihood of self-reported pain. Those with body mass index ratings from 30 to 34.9 were 1.8 times as likely to report severe pain vs. normal or underweight individuals. This rose to 2.3 times among the severely obese with BMIs above 40.

The study noted that pain wasn’t restricted to weight-bearing joints. At higher levels of obesity, respondents were more likely to experience pain in a variety of locations.

As the obesity epidemic grows, so will the incidence of persistent pain, now estimated to affect some 50 million Americans. The study concluded that if the relationship between obesity and pain is reciprocal, obesity interventions could become a pain management strategy and effective pain management could help increase physical activity and prevent further weight gain.

Adolescent Self-Perception: Associations with Chronic Musculoskeletal Pain and Functional Disability
Jessica W. Guite, David D. Sherry and John B. Rose, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia; and Deirdre E. Logan, Children’s Hospital of Boston.

The goal of this study, conducted by researchers at Children’s Hospital in Boston and Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia, was to examine the level of self-perceived competence in school among adolescents with musculoskeletal pain syndromes. They performed a retrospective review of 115 adolescents. Though self-perceived competence among adolescents with chronic pain conditions has not been studied extensively, existing research shows that chronic pain is associated with poorer perceived competence.

Results showed that pain intensity was less predictive of functional disabilities among adolescents with low global self worth perception, defined as the extent to which the adolescents like themselves. The authors concluded that when global self worth is low among youth with chronic pain, factors other than pain may play a role in determining functional impairment. Among adolescents with high self worth, functional outcomes are more closely linked with pain severity.

Conflict About Expressing Emotions and Chronic Low Back Pain: Associations with Pain and Anger
James W. Carson, Francis J. Keefe, Kathryn P. Lowry, Laura S. Porter Veerainder Goli and Ann Marie Fras, Duke University Medical Center

Researchers from Duke University Medical Center sought to determine if individuals with chronic low back pain who demonstrate ambivalence over emotional expression (AEE) would report higher levels of pain and higher levels of anger about their pain. AEE is defined as the tendency to be conflicted about expressing emotions.

Sixty-one low-back pain patients were studied and completed an AEE questionnaire. Their pain was assessed using the McGill Pain Questionnaire. Results showed that AEE is meaningfully related to pain and anger scores in those with persistent low-back pain. Further, this is the first study to demonstrate a link between AEE and anger about pain. The researchers concluded that their findings emphasize the need to recognize that anger management can be helpful to emotionally suppressed patients in coping with persistent pain.

APS Responds to Member Feedback

APS E-News occasionally surveys members to solicit feedback about E-News. In recent surveys, members consistently ranked summaries from The Journal of Pain as their favorite E-News feature. In 2006, members suggested that E-News include summaries from other journals in the field. Starting this month we are excited to bring you summaries from Pain Medicine, the official journal of the American Academy of Pain Medicine.

We continue to seek your feedback and welcome your comments. Send comments to Managing Editor Deborah Pinkston at dpinkston@connect2amc.com.

Pain Medicine Highlights

The following highlights summarize selected articles from the April 2007 issue (volume 8, number 3).

The Social Consequences for Older People of Neuropathic Pain: A Qualitative Study
Beatrice Sofaer-Bennet, PhD BA RN RCT Cert Couns, University of Brighton, Eastbourne; Jan Walker, PhD BSc RN RHV C Psychol, University of Southampton, Southampton; John Lamberty, MBBS BS MRCS LRCP FRCA, and Tom Thorp, MBChB DA MRCA FFARSCI, Brighton and Sussex University Hospital Trust, Brighton; Joseph O'Dwyer, MBChB BAO MRCP FRCA, Worthing and Southlands NHS Trust, Worthing, UK

These British researchers studied the social experiences of older people with neuropathic pain, and those of their partners and spouses, by conducting semi-structured at-home interviews with 16 people over the age of 60 who attended pain clinics. The audiotaped interviews were analyzed using an interpretative phenomenological approach.

The study identified a combination of pain-related limitations and uncertainties that lead to social isolation of both patients and their spouses. The researchers noted that the results raise questions about the relationship between neuropathic pain—its physical and emotional consequences and social outcomes—and highlight the importance of viewing neuropathic pain as a social phenomenon and paying close attention to patients and their families’ interpersonal and social needs and quality-of-life outcomes.

Postoperative Pain Intensity Assessment: A Comparison of Four Scales in Chinese Adults
Li Li, MSN RN, and Xuequin Liu, BSN RN, Zhujiang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China; Keela Herr, PhD RN FAAN, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA

Researchers studied the psychometric properties and applicability of four pain scales in Chinese postoperative adults. Recalled pain and anticipated postoperative pain intensity of 173 Chinese patients (ages 18 to 78 years) were rated preoperatively with a visual analog scale (VAS), a numeric rating scale (NRS), a verbal descriptor scale (VDS), and the Faces Pain Scale Revised (FPS-R). From the day of surgery to the sixth postoperative day, patients were interviewed for the scores of current operative pain intensity and the worst, least, and average pain on that day. Scale reliability was evaluated using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs).

Results showed that all four pain intensity scales had good reliability and validity when used with Chinese adults. The ICCs of the four scales across current, worst, least, and average pain on each postoperative day were consistently high, and all scales at each rating were strongly correlated. Researchers noted that although all these scales are options for reporting pain intensity among Chinese adults, the FPS-R appeared to be the best one. They suggested providing tool options to address individual needs or preferences.

APS Announces Its 2007 Future Leaders in Pain Management Small Grants Research Program

The call for applications for the 2007 Future Leaders in Pain Management Small Grants Research Program will launch on Monday, June 11. This year APS will again award five grants in the amount of $20,000 each to those research proposals demonstrating the greatest merit and potential for success. This grant program has been established to fund research projects of doctorally-prepared investigators who have not yet attained NIH RO1 level funding. The program’s intent is to encourage research in pain that will add to the body of knowledge, and to allow investigators to develop pilot data that will aid them in securing additional major grant funding.

APS gratefully acknowledges Cephalon and Endo Pharmaceuticals for their support of this program.

Deadlines
Applications may be submitted online through the APS Web site beginning June 11 and will be due by midnight July 27, 2007. Grant awards will be announced October 1, 2007. Funds will be awarded for a 2-year grant period that will begin upon satisfactory execution of the grant agreement between APS and the sponsoring institution, and the receipt of IRB approval.

Research Topics
Proposed research projects should be in one of the following five areas of inquiry.

• Use of analgesic medications
• Unwanted effects of pain treatment related to analgesic therapy
• Neuropathic pain
• Mechanisms of pain
• Education and nonpharmacologic interventions or approaches to improve pain management.

Eligibility
To be eligible for an APS Future Leaders in Pain Management Small Grant, applicants must be APS members within six years of completing their doctoral degree and not yet been awarded major NIH or foundation grant funding.

Grant Budget and Grantee Obligations
Eligible grant expenses may include principle investigator salary but not institutional overhead. Upon request, recipients are required to submit a one page written interim progress report to the committee. Recipients will report on the final result of their project to the committee at the second annual APS meeting, in accordance with the terms of the grant agreement. The cost of travel to the APS annual meeting will be included in the grant budget.

Investigators are encouraged to submit their final results to APS for abstract presentation.

For additional information contact APS at 847-375-4715 or info@ampainsoc.org.

APS Small Grants Committee
Sandra Ward PhD RN, Chair
Michael Caterina, PhD
C. Richard Chapman, PhD
Roger Fillingim, PhD
Gerald F. Gebhart, PhD
Jennifer Haythornthwaite, PhD
Keela Herr, PhD RN
Charles Inturrisi, PhD
Robert Jamison, PhD
Gayle Page, DNSc RN
Kathleen Sluka, PhD
George Wilcox, PhD

Call for Award Nominations

The Awards Committee of the American Pain Society invites nominations for awards to be presented at the 27th Annual Scientific Meeting May 7–10, 2008 in Tampa, Florida.

To make one or more award nominations, visit the APS Web site beginning June 1 and complete the electronic nomination form. Please be sure to include all of the requested information. All nominations should be completed online by July 13, 2007. Please contact Jennifer Reinard at the APS office at jreinard@connect2amc.com with any questions. The committee solicits nominations for the following APS awards:

John and Emma Bonica Public Service Award
Recognizes distinguished contributions by an individual or an organization to the field of pain through public education, dissemination of information, public service, or other efforts that further knowledge about pain. The recipient of this award need not be a member of APS, and the award may be given to either an individual or a group. The nominee must have produced a body of outstanding achievements through direct public service, dissemination of information and public education, or activities that have enhanced the field of pain and pain scholarship and have had a direct impact on the public.

Wilbert E. Fordyce Clinical Investigator Award
Recognizes individual excellence and achievements in clinical pain scholarship and is presented to a professional whose career achievements have made outstanding contributions to the field of clinical pain research and/or practice. Nominees must be APS members.

F. W. L. Kerr Basic Science Research Award
Recognizes individual excellence and achievements in pain research and is presented to a pain professional whose total career achievements make outstanding contributions to the field. Nominees must be APS members.

Jeffrey Lawson Award for Advocacy in Children's Pain Relief
This award was established in memory of Jeffrey Lawson, whose mother, Jill, brought to the attention of professional organizations the practice of performing surgery and other procedures on children without the benefit of analgesia.The award recognizes advocacy efforts to improve management of pain in children. The award may be given to a patient, parent, professional, other individual, or a group of individuals or an organization. This award is not restricted to APS members.

John C. Liebeskind Early Career Scholar Award
Recognizes early career achievements of individuals who have made outstanding contributions to pain scholarship or show substantial promise of doing so. For example, nominees must have made a series of distinguished empirical contributions to the field of pain or contributed substantially to the development of new theories or methods. Typically, nominees will be at the assistant professor level or its equivalent. The nominees must be APS members and must have received their terminal degree within the last 7 years. All nominees must have their vita and a supporting letter submitted by the individual(s) making the nomination.

Elizabeth Narcessian Award
Recognizes outstanding educational achievements in the field of pain. The award is given in memory of Elizabeth Narcessian, who lectured tirelessly on the mechanics of the appropriate use of opioids, patient assessment, and the various approaches to the rehabilitation of patients who have been devastated by chronic pain. Nominees must be APS members and must have made an outstanding contribution or innovation in education in the field of pain. All nominees must have their vita and a supporting letter submitted by the individual(s) making the nomination.

Distinguished Service Award
Honors outstanding and dedicated service to the American Pain Society and is presented to an individual or a group that has advanced the mission of the society in a significant and lasting way. Emphasis is given to a body of contributions, which have been made within the context of APS and on behalf of the society.

2008 Awards Committee
Dennis C. Turk, PhD, Chair
Robert J. Gatchel, PhD ABPP
Marion Good, PhD RN FAAN
Bryan C. Hains, PhD
Leora Kuttner, PhD
Allen H. Lebovits, PhD
Kathleen A. Sluka, PhD
Christina M. Spellman, PhD
George L. Wilcox, PhD

New APS Position Statement on Translational Research

The APS Translational Research Task Force recently created a position statement to identify obstacles to translational pain research and provide possible solutions, list gaps in existing basic and clinical pain-related research, and describe how translational pain research might fit in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Roadmap.

APS gratefully acknowledges the following members of the APS Translational Task Force for their work on this position statement: Timothy Ness, MD PhD, Chair; Ursula Wesselmann, MD PhD; Laura Stone, PhD; Patrick Mantyh, PhD JD; and John Neubert, DDS PhD.

APS Call for Symposia

The Call for Symposia and Corporate Satellite Symposia for the APS 27th Annual Scientific Meeting, May 7–10, 2008, will be available on the APS Web site beginning Friday, June 15, 2007. The deadline for the receipt of all proposals is Friday, July 27, 2007. Session moderators and faculty will be notified of their proposal's status in October, 2007.

Mayday Pain & Society Fellowship: Application Deadline Extended to July 1, 2007

The Mayday Fund, a New York City foundation dedicated to alleviating the incidence, degree, and consequence of human physical pain, is extending the application deadline to July 1, for the 2007 Mayday Pain & Society Fellowship, A Media & Policy Fellows Initiative. This is the fourth year of the program, which is designed to equip physicians, nurses, pharmacists, social workers, scientists, and legal scholars with the necessary skills to become effective advocates and spokespeople about pain issues in the United States and Canada. Developing their communications skills, 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. The fellowship program runs through 2009.

Once selected, the six fellows will attend a 4-day training in Washington, DC (October 22–25, 2007), developing individual advocacy plans to include connecting with local and national media, writing opinion editorials, developing relationships with university public affairs and government relations leadership, and talking with state legislators and members of Congress. Each fellow will have 5 months of coaching with a communications officer to track progress on their plans.

Those interested can apply online at painandhealth.org/maydayfellows/fellows.html.

Introducing a New Look!

The APS Web site has a fresh new look, which reflects the new APS brand identity. The identity was selected by the APS Board in 2006 after a task force, which included Judy Paice, Seddon Savage, Mark Jensen, and George Wilcox, underwent a rebranding exercise and recommended the new graphic design. The identity emphazises the multidisciplinary and scientific nature of APS while reinforcing the ultimate vision of APS—preventing and relieving pain for all people.

Over the next several months all APS materials including E-News, the Bulletin, The Journal of Pain, and collateral materials will be updated to reflect this identity.