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American Pain Society
4700 W Lake Ave
Glenview, IL 60025
David A. Williams, PhD, Department Editor
Donna S. Zhukovsky, MD FACP, and Judith Paice, PhD RN FAAN
Founded in 1998 by Kristine Nelson, MD, and Jan Frandsen, MSN CRNP, the APS Palliative Care Special Interest Group (SIG) has continued to expand its activities under the leadership of Myra Glajchen, DSW, and Donna S. Zhukovsky, MD FACP, cochairs of the group since November 2000. Priorities for the SIG include professional education targeted at APS palliative care and pain specialists, professional networking, and collegial support opportunities.
Each of these priorities was achieved at this year’s Annual Scientific Meeting. Formal educational events sponsored by the SIG included a 4-hour preconference course, “Palliative Care Primer for the Pain Clinician: Rules, Tools and Pearls,” and a symposium entitled, “The Changing Face of Pain.” The preconference course consisted of didactic and interactive sessions incorporating a multimodal approach. Daniel Carr, MD; Nessa Coyle, PhD RN; Dr. Glajchen; and Dr. Zhukovksy were course facilitators. The symposium, focusing on assessment and management of pain complicated by psychological and existential distress, featured Dr. Coyle, Robin Fainsinger, MD, and Dr. Zhukovsky.
The annual SIG meeting afforded an opportunity for more informal education among pain and palliative care colleagues and a wonderful networking opportunity. Hosted by Judy Paice, PhD RN, and the Palliative Care and Home Hospice Program of Northwestern Memorial Hospital, the meeting was held on site at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Twenty individuals representing diverse professional backgrounds and countries of origin were in attendance, some coming from as far away as Japan. Dr. Glajchen facilitated an exchange based on highlights of the recent American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine annual meeting. Art Lipman, PharmD, editor of the APS Bulletin Palliative Care Department, initiated discussion about recent columns and solicited proposals for future topics. Dr. Zhukovsky concluded the more formal component of the program with an overview of the role of the Supportive Care Editorial Board of the Physician Data Query, the National Cancer Institute’s comprehensive database. One of six editorial boards, the Supportive Care Editorial Board provides regularly updated peer-reviewed summaries about assessment and management of multiple symptoms and health-related concerns of patients with advanced cancer. Summary versions targeted to healthcare professionals and patients are available at www.cancer.gov.
The meeting’s grand finale was a reception and tour of the palliative care unit at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. The Palliative Care and Home Hospice Program at Northwestern Memorial Hospital is nationally recognized as a Pioneer Program in Palliative Care by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Milbank Memorial Fund. Established in 1982, the program includes a 10-bed inpatient palliative care unit, a palliative care consult service, a palliative care outpatient clinic, and a home-based hospice. The program’s mission is to provide excellent clinical care and symptom control while attending to the psychological and spiritual needs of patients and their families. The program also is dedicated to vigorous research and a strong teaching mission, reaching out to all healthcare professionals, volunteers, and members of the community. The program is affiliated with the Educating Physicians on End-of-Life Care Project (EPEC) through collaboration with an interdisciplinary team including Linda Emanuel, MD PhD, director of the Buehler Center on Aging and founder and principal investigator of the EPEC program; Jamie Von Roenn, MD, medical director of the Palliative Care and Home Hospice Program and professor of medicine, Division of Hematology-Oncology; Joshua Hauser, MD, attending physician in the Palliative Care Program and instructor in medicine and director of the Education Section at the Buehler Center on Aging; and Judith Paice, PhD RN, research professor of medicine, division of hematology-oncology, Northwestern University Medical School.
Based on the success of this year’s tour, the SIG looks forward to conducting future meetings at local palliative care programs to stimulate professional interchange that leads to clinical and research collaboration. If you would like to join APS’s Palliative Care SIG, please contact Cynthia Porter at cporter@amctec.com. If you have suggestions for future APS pain and palliative care activities, please contact Dr. Glajchen at Mglajchen@bethisraelny.org or Dr. Zhukovsky at dzhukovs@mdanderson.org.
David A. Williams, PhD, Department Editor, invites APS Special Interest Group (SIG) chairs to submit SIG-related news to daveawms@umich.edu.
