Jun 4 2014
There are 116 million people in pain. There are 4,000 pain specialists. That's 29,000 patients per pain specialist. There are simply not enough pain specialists to go around.
What can frontline practitioners do to meet the challenges of this growing public health issue? Attend PAINWeekEnd in Tarrytown, convenient to New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut practitioners!
The 2014 PAINWeekEnd Regional Conference convenes on Saturday, June 14, in Tarrytown at the Westchester Marriott hotel. Now entering their 4th year, PAINWeekEnd Regional Conferences offer a concentrated day of continuing education in pain management designed expressly for frontline practitioners.
In August 2013, New York State redoubled its efforts to combat pain medication abuse and addiction with the launch of I-STOP, the Internet System for Tracking Over-Prescribing. New York State now requires doctors to consult a patient's medical history before prescribing most opioids, requires pharmacists to report prescription filling in real-time, and, by December 2014, will mandate that all prescriptions for controlled medications be written electronically. When contacted, Charles Argoff, MD, CPE, board member of the New York State Pain Society, observed, "These new measures intensify the need for prescribing clinicians to be well grounded in pain medicine. And by attending PAINWeekEnd in June, they can do exactly that."
PAINWeekEnd attendees can receive 6.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ as they enhance their capabilities in the assessment, diagnosis, and management of chronic pain conditions. Courses to be offered at PAINWeekEnd NY/NJ cover a broad range of pain conditions and practice considerations. Attendees will learn about rational polypharmacy; special considerations of chronic pain in children; neuropathic itch; office-based procedures for PCPs; and the role of adjuvants and co-analgesics in pain therapy.
Commenting on the PAINWeekEnd Series, Debra Weiner, Director of Program Development noted, "The dual public health crises of inadequate pain management and the challenges of balancing access to medication with responsible prescribing continue to be felt by primary care practices and their patients. The imbalance between the number of patients with pain and the number of available pain specialists is familiar to us all, and these PAINWeekEnd Conferences are a cost- and time-effective way for primary care clinicians to augment their skills in this critical arena."
PAINWeekEnd Tarrytown will be held on Saturday, June 14, at the Westchester Marriott hotel on 670 White Plains Road.
The PAINWeekEnd curriculum will be presented by a multidisciplinary faculty and is intended for frontline clinicians including physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and pharmacists. In addition, there will be commercially supported activities, both certified and noncertified, addressing a range of product, disease state, and medical information topics.
Examining how pain could play a direct protective role in the gut