Library
APS Bulletin • Volume 19, Number 2, 2009
President’s Message
Charles E. Inturrisi, PhD
Have a Special Interest? There’s a SIG for That!
One of the most popular member-led activities is the APS Special Interest Group (SIG). SIGs provide a forum for the expression of common interest topics, generate projects that become symposia at our annual meeting, conduct surveys and develop position papers that inform APS members, foster interactions that lead to collaborative NIH grant applications, and inform the Board on matters related to their special expertise.
Currently there are 16 SIGs whose interest areas include basic science, clinical trials, ethics and philosophy, forensic, genetics and pain, geriatric pain, measurement of pain and its impact, nursing issues, pain and disparities, pain education, pain in infants, children and adolescents, pain rehabilitation, palliative care, pharmacotherapy, and psychosocial research.
All of this began quite modestly in 1997 with a task force comprising Bob Jamison, Valerie McCann, Judy Paice, and Linda Sorkin that was charged with developing recommendations to address the need for a member networking format. The task force made a number of very prescient recommendations that the Board adopted and that remain as SIG guidelines today. It was recommended that SIGs should be multidisciplinary, based on a specific disease or area of interest, and open to all members. Any group of 25 or more APS members can apply to the Board to form a SIG by providing a name for the SIG, a description of the proposed activity and scientific focus, and the names and signatures of the founding members.
| “SIGs provide a forum for the expression of common interest topics, generate projects that become symposia at our annual meeting, conduct surveys and develop position papers that inform APS members, foster interactions that lead to collaborative NIH grant applications, and inform the Board on matters related to their special expertise.” |
Each SIG elects a representative at the SIG meeting, which takes place at the APS Annual Meeting. The SIG representative serves as a liaison to the chairperson of the Scientific Program Committee to prevent overlap of topics and to ensure that the needs of SIG are reflected in the scientific program. A Board member serves as a liaison to the SIG and informs the Board of requests made by the SIG. In addition to meeting during the annual meeting, SIGs can provide yearly reports within the APS Bulletin. The existing psychosocial research, nursing, and basic science research groups had fit the criteria and following Board approval of the recommendations, became SIGs. The most recently approved SIG (May 2009) focuses on pain education.
In the last decade, the activities of the SIGs and their contributions to APS and its members have grown exponentially. The range of activities of the SIGs is truly impressive. This is just a sampling of the 2009 SIG meetings: a presentation on Abuse Deterrent Analgesics: Scientific, Regulatory and Public Health Perspectives (Clinical Trials SIG); a dinner that featured three short debates on Death of the Dogma? Paradigm-Shifting Questions about Mechanisms of Pain (Basic Science SIG); brief presentations of recent findings considered of high impact followed by an open discussion (Genetics and Pain SIG); and the establishment of a directory of interdisciplinary pain rehabilitation programs (Pain Rehabilitation SIG).
The SIGs are listed on the APS Web site at www.ampainsoc.org/member/specint.htm. Each SIG has its own Web page that lists the SIG cochairs’ contact information, a mission statement, and the focus of the SIG. SIG membership is included in your annual dues and any APS member can join one or more SIGs, regardless of discipline. To join a SIG or to learn more about forming a SIG, contact APS at info@ampainsoc.org or call 847/375-4715.
