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 fifth 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:

Brigham and Women's Pain Management Center, Boston

Comprehensive Pain Center of Sarasota (Fla.)

Children's Hospital of Milwaukee

Rehabilitation Institute of Washington, Seattle

University of New Mexico Project ECHO Pain Clinic, Albuquerque

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

"In the program's fifth year, the Clinical Centers of Excellence Awards continue to serve a unique need in recognizing pain care programs achieving remarkable results in providing relief and restoring everyday function to those who lives are burdened with persistent pain," said APS President Seddon Savage, M.D., associate professor of anesthesiology, Dartmouth Medical School and adjunct faculty director, Dartmouth Center on Addiction Recovery and Education.

"The quality of the submitted programs was superb and, as a pain-care clinician, I'm gratified to see such inspiring outcomes from our colleagues in multidisciplinary pain care teams throughout the country."

Savage added that the Clinical Centers of Excellence Awards support the ongoing advocacy mission of APS. "These awards highlight the benefits of the multidisciplinary approach to pain management for providing optimal care for myriad pain conditions," she said. A recurring quality of leading pain programs, she noted, is success in helping patients enhance overall function and quality of life. "Combining cognitive-behavioral and physical therapies with medications and other modalities is the major advantage of the multidisciplinary approach -- treat the whole person, not just the pain."

Among the achievements of the five organizations recognized by APS are:

Brigham and Women's Pain Management Center: This internationally recognized pain center is a previous CCOE winner. It treats 19,000 patients a year, including many referred from tertiary care centers. Its noteworthy initiatives include expanded psychological, social work and pharmacy services along with the introduction of palliative care and pelvic pain programs. Also, the center conducts opioids and angiogenesis research and offers a continuing medical education program to manage risk for patients on long-term opioid therapy.

Comprehensive Pain Center of Sarasota: Operating a legitimate pain management clinic above suspicion in a state with high incidence of prescription drug abuse isn't easy. Yet this pain center has achieved an outstanding reputation in southwest Florida for its patient-centered, evidence-based and outcomes focused approach through which integrative programs are the key element for successful outcomes. Offering treatment modalities ranging from conservative to invasive, practitioners follow a multidimensional approach with a biopsychosocial emphasis on understanding and managing pain. Implementing a patient focused philosophy, care providers and support personnel meet weekly at multidisciplinary care conferences to discuss treatment plans. The center's spa-like atmosphere and culturally conscious bilingual staff provide a relaxing and nurturing environment.

Children's Hospital of Milwaukee: This program serves more than 4,000 patients a year and follows a multidisciplinary, family-centered care model that integrates medical and mental health services. The staff delivers comprehensive care and works closely with families, schools and other health care providers. Its Acute Pain Service led a Six Sigma quality initiative that improved patient-controlled analgesia safety. Also, its collaboration with the Center's sickle-cell clinic helped lower costs and emergency department recidivism. The Center's ongoing pain research projects examine school functioning, obesity, mindfulness-based stress reduction, acupuncture, and yoga to facilitate recovery

Rehabilitation Institute of Washington, Seattle: Since becoming a freestanding center, the Institute has tripled in size and now serves 650 patients. The facility offers an interdisciplinary cognitive behavioral pain rehabilitation program focused on injured workers with chronic pain and disability, emphasizing education and active therapy to improve functionality and ability to return to work. Education is the key component of treatment and overuse of passive modalities, interventional treatments and medication is avoided. In addition, the Institute helped redesign the pain rehabilitation guidelines for the state of Washington and collaborated to develop treatment protocols.

University of New Mexico Project ECHO Pain Clinic: This group has established a strong program to serve rural or urban underserved populations where specialty pain care is not available. It treats patients with complex pain who are referred by primary care practitioners throughout the state. The clinic provides services at no charge for rural communities and works through primary care practitioners sensitive to cultural diversities. The New Mexico Medial Board has endorsed the clinic as a model to provide safe and effective pain management with appropriate use of opioid medications.