APS honors recipients of Clinical Centers of Excellence in Pain Management Awards

The American Pain Society (APS), www.ampainsoc.org, today honored the recipients of its annual Clinical Centers of Excellence in Pain Management Awards recognizing the nation's outstanding pain care centers. Five multidisciplinary pain programs were recognized. They are:

Community-based Programs
•Cleveland Clinic Children's Pediatric Pain Rehabilitation Program
•Cleveland VA Medical Center Pain Medicine Service
•Valley Anesthesiology Consultants/Phoenix Children's Hospital Pain Medicine Program
University-based Programs
•Brigham and Women's Hospital Pain Management Center
•UC Davis Center for Pain Medicine

APS established the Clinical Centers of Excellence in Pain Management program in 2006 to increase awareness about teams of health professionals who address critical, sometimes unmet, needs in pain management within their communities. Multidisciplinary programs in the U.S. offering direct patient care in pain management are eligible to apply. A panel of pain management experts judged detailed award applications. Award recipients will be honored at a reception during the APS Annual Scientific Conference.

The Clinical Centers of Excellence Awards support the ongoing advocacy mission of APS by showcasing the benefits of the multidisciplinary approach to pain management for providing optimal care for myriad pain conditions. A recurring quality of leading pain programs is success in helping patients enhance their overall function and quality of life by treating the whole person, not just the pain. Achievements of the five organizations recognized by APS include:

Cleveland Clinic Children's Pediatric Pain Rehabilitation Program
The core service offered in this program is a three-week interdisciplinary pain rehabilitation program that provides inpatient and day hospital care for a variety of pain conditions. All patients attend classroom sessions and school re-entry meetings are arranged prior to discharge. The program maintains a patient registry and annual outcomes measures show improved functioning, pain reduction, and reduced health care utilization.

Cleveland VA Medical Center Pain Medicine Service
Started in 2004, the program follows a low-opioids reliance model and promotes physical rehabilitation and self-management as its mission. Interventional procedures, pharmacologic modalities, psychological interventions and complementary/alternative medicine are used to foster rehabilitation and healthy lifestyles. At Level 1, primary care providers with pain care training manage the patients. Level 2 patients are referred to outpatient clinics for treatment by specialists in pain medicine, pain psychology and other allied specialties. Level 3 is the intensive outpatient program for complex patients. It is a 12-week, 1-day per week rehab program featuring psychological interventions, aquatic therapy, group exercise, occupational therapy and dietary and vocational rehabilitation.

Valley Anesthesiology Consultants/Phoenix Children's Hospital Pain Medicine Program
This private practice is the only comprehensive, multidisciplinary acute and chronic pain medicine program for children in the Southwest. Its relationship with Phoenix Children's has helped minimize and distribute costs while maximizing services. The group has multiple ongoing research projects, regularly presents research at major scientific meetings, publishes articles in medical journals, and maintains innovative collaborations such as its Opioid Prescribing Program designed to promote responsible opioid prescribing and reduce prescription drug misuse.

Brigham and Women's Hospital Pain Management Center
The center has initiated new programs in pelvic pain therapy, addiction disorders, oncology-palliative care and established a state of the art spine center. The team developed new methods for patient assessment by using an electronic PainCAS program with a smartphone app. This has fostered collection of customized outcomes measures and implemented improved systems for communicating with and monitoring patients.

UC Davis Center for Pain Medicine
The center is dedicated to comprehensive and collaborative patient care, excellence in education, innovative research, patient advocacy, and improving public policy. Education is a pillar of the program and includes clinicians from all health professions. The UC Davis Center's clinicians are renowned educators and investigators who impact the training of the next generation of pain care providers across all medical professions. Ongoing research includes studies on prescription drug abuse prevention, simulated inter-professional pain education, tele-mentoring for creating rural primary care pain management centers, safety of interventional pain procedures, the impact of art on coping with chronic pain, and mental health assessment as a core outcome measure in pain care.