American Pain Society Announces Recipients of Clinical Centers of Excellence in Pain Management Awards

GLENVIEW, Ill., April 10 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Pain Society (APS), http://www.ampainsoc.org, today announced the recipients of its second annual Clinical Centers of Excellence in Pain Management Awards recognizing the nation's outstanding pain care centers. Six multidisciplinary pain programs were recognized. They are:

     Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, Richard Barrett Pain Management
     Center, Lebanon, NH

     Pediatric Pain Management Center at Oregon Health & Science University,
     Portland

     Productive Rehabilitation Institute of Dallas for Ergonomics (PRIDE)

     Stanford Pain Center, Palo Alto

     University of Minnesota Fairview Pain and Palliative Care Center,
     Minneapolis

     UW Health Pain Care Services, Madison, Wis.

Forty-nine applications were judged by a panel of prominent pain management experts. APS established the program in 2006 to recognize progressive 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. Award recipients will be honored at a gala on May 8 at the APS Annual Scientific Conference in Tampa.

"In our second year, the Clinical Centers Excellence Awards drew applicants from every part of the country with excellent performance in relieving suffering and restoring everyday function to those who lives are burdened with persistent pain," said APS President Judith Paice, Ph.D., R.N., F.A.A.N., director, cancer pain program, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. "We were impressed by the quality of the submitted programs. As a pain care professional, I'm deeply gratified to see such outstanding outcomes being achieved by multidisciplinary pain care teams nationwide."

Paice added that the Clinical Centers of Excellence Awards also support the ongoing advocacy mission of APS for multidisciplinary pain care. "The awards honor pain care teams for delivering optimal and exemplary care for those with myriad chronic-pain disorders, post-surgical pain, trauma-induced pain and pain from cancer and other life-threatening conditions," Paice added.

A recurring quality of leading pain programs, according to Paice, is success in helping patients enhance overall function and quality of life. "Combining cognitive-behavioral and physical therapies with medications and other approaches is the major advantage of the multidisciplinary approach. We treat the whole person, not just the pain. The award recipients and other centers are proving every day that integrated, multidisciplinary pain care yields the best long-term outcomes -- medically, psychologically and socially," she said.

    Among the achievements of CCOE recipients recognized by APS, include:

    -- Creation and maintenance of a huge pain patient data base, derived from
       client  surveys, which allows doctors to follow the progress of
       individual patients or groups over time.  The database was instrumental
       in landing a $10 million grant to build a palliative care facility.
       (Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center)
    -- A strong mix of medical and behavioral care and physical rehabilitation
       services to help children with chronic pain go back to school and
       resume their lives. (Oregon Health & Science University)
    -- The nation's leading pain program focused on occupation health with an
       85-90 percent success rate from aggressive physical rehabilitation that
       enables patients to go back to work.  (PRIDE)
    -- An strong emphasis on translational research in which outcomes achieved
       in treating the most challenging pain patients help faculty advance
       scientific knowledge about pain and develop new research initiatives,
       (Stanford Pain Center)
    -- An innovative medication management program that helps patients reduce
       their doses of pain medications by resolving anxiety and fears about
       lowering medication use.  (Fairview Pain and Palliative Care Center)
    -- An aggressive continuous improvement and quality management program
       that constantly measures patient satisfaction, safety and outcomes to
       provide high quality care based on science and compassion.  (UW Health)

About the American Pain Society

Based in Glenview, Ill., the American Pain Society (APS) is a multidisciplinary community that brings together a diverse group of scientists, clinicians and other professionals to increase the knowledge of pain and transform public policy and clinical practice to reduce pain-related suffering. APS was founded in 1978 with 510 charter members. From the outset, the group was conceived as a multidisciplinary organization. APS has enjoyed solid growth since its early days and today has approximately 3,200 members. The Board of Directors includes physicians, nurses, psychologists, basic scientists, pharmacists, policy analysts and others.

Program Supporters

The Clinical Centers of Excellence in Pain Management program is made possible with the generous support of Endo Pharmaceuticals, Abbott Laboratories, Cephalon, King Pharmaceuticals, Merck and Pfizer.