Education and Awareness
You are cordially invited to Responsible Opioid Prescribing in the Era of REMS DINNER DIALOGUES Series!
This interactive program is framed around the principles of the NIPC Critical Thinking Model for Chronic Opioid Therapy. Integrating these principles into your practice can aid in responsibly and appropriately prescribing opioids, fostering compliance with state and federal regulations and optimizing analgesia for your patients. This meeting will utilize audience response technology (ARS) to encourage ongoing interaction between you, the expert faculty, and your colleagues. Register today!
Pain and Travel Guide: How to Plan Before You Go
Travel is more complicated than it used to be with more wait times and unpredictable delays. Whether you are taking to the road, rail or skies, cramped quarters in cars, trains and planes can be hard on most of us, but especially when you have any type of pain condition. Traveling with pain medications — some of which have legal restrictions — and adjusting to changes in time zones can make your usual pain management routine difficult to follow.
To help, APF is unveiling new pain and travel resources in time for the holiday rush. As always, these materials are being developed with input from people living with pain who know the specific challenges that often arise with travel.
Persistent Pain in the Older Adult: Addressing Challenges and Barriers to Treatment
Webcast now available! This interactive, on-demand webcast from the American Pain Foundation and the NIPC® explores management and treatment of persistent pain in older adults, and features the “Pearls to Practice” worksheet, which allows you to take notes and capture key messages in “real time” as you are viewing the webcast!
Journal of Family Practice eNewsletter Series — Pain Management Today
Each issue in this 10-part series focuses on key topics surrounding the use of opioid therapy. Issues include a feature article written by an expert in the field of pain management and accompanied by commentary from a primary care physician that addresses the topic from a day-to-day practice perspective. To aid in the application of the principles raised in the eNewsletter series in your practice, each issue follows a step in the National Initiative on Pain Control (NIPC) treatment algorithm, which highlights key steps in managing and treating patients who are receiving opioid therapy. Access the series today!
Public Service Announcements Now Available
Losing sleep? Missing work? Unable to perform everyday household tasks or even play with your child? You are not alone. Millions of Americans are affected by pain. In fact, an estimated 76.5 million Americans report a problem with pain that lasts for more than a day—more than diabetes, heart disease and cancer combined. No matter how old or young you are, the simple truth is that pain does not discriminate. Often, a combination of treatment options is most effective, and may include over-the-counter or prescription medication, physical therapy, emotional support, complementary and alternative medicine, injections and implantable devices or surgery.
Public service announcements, entitled “Pain Does Not Discriminate,” are available in :60, :30 and :20 lengths.
Q&As on Risk Management Strategies for Opioid Therapy
If you are taking an opioid — a type of prescription pain medication — for pain management you may have questions about the precautions that need to be taken to ensure their safe use. When opioids are used as directed and under the guidance of a health care provider, they are safe and can help improve function and quality of life for people with pain.
Why are practices such as opioid agreements, urine testing and pill counts necessary? These, and other risk management strategies, are in place to help assure that opioids are being used by the right person, at the right time and at the right dose. You may have heard of other terms like opioid rotations, drug holidays and others. APF and other experts in pain management weigh in on these and other risk management strategies that are used by providers when opioids are a treatment option. As with all treatment options, it is important to learn about opioids so that you can make the best decisions for your health.
Seeking Solutions: Advancing Understanding for the Safe Use of Acetaminophen
In November 2010, the American Pain Foundation (APF) hosted a meeting, “Seeking Solutions: Advancing Understanding for the Safe Use of Acetaminophen.” The meeting brought together leading experts on liver injury and the safe use of acetaminophen. The meeting’s objective was to identify and evaluate measures to decrease morbidity and mortality of acetaminophen-related hepatic (liver) injury. Panel members included clinicians, people with pain, representatives from the Centers for Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administration and individuals with expertise in poison control, pharmacology, industry, toxicology and medication safety.
Let's Talk Pain
Let's Talk Pain is a coalition of pain advocacy orgainzations focused on increasing awareness and improving the understanding of pain management. The coalition's goal is to encourage people affected by pain and their health care providers to talk more about pain, listen actively and act in ways that can help improve care for the millions of people who live with pain. Founding members of the Let's Talk Pain coalition are the American Pain Foundation, American Academy of Pain Management and American Society for Pain Management Nursing.
The Let’s Talk Pain - Pain Medication Safety Series is web-based series for people with pain, their family members and caregivers that discusses the appropriate use of opioids, over-the-counter medications and implantable pain therapies. This unique series features candid dialogues between patients, their caregivers and health care professionals about pain and its safe and effective management. Watch the series to hear real-life compelling accounts about developing successful pain management plans.
A Case-Based Approach to the Safe and Effective Use of Opioid Therapy in Primary Care
This CME/CE case activity was developed by Paul Arnstein, RN, PhD, FNP-C, Bill McCarberg, MD, and Mary Lynn McPherson, PharmD, and focuses on issues relating to the prescription of opioid analgesics for the management of chronic pain. This activity was designed to meet the educational needs of physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and pharmacists who treat pain and people with chronic pain by providing several unique primary care perspectives. This case-based activity was developed in collaboration with the American Pain Foundation, the Friends Research Institute, and in consultation with the NIH's National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Protect Your Patients, Protect Your Practice: Practical Risk Assessment in the Structuring of Opioid Therapy in Chronic Pain
The faculty authors of this CME/CE supplement, Perry G. Fine, MD, and Russell K. Portenoy, MD, discuss not only how to assess abuse risk in people with chronic pain being considered for opioid therapy, but also how to position opioid therapy in the overall management of chronic pain. This activity has been designed to meet the educational needs of physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and pharmacists who treat pain and people with chronic pain. This activity was developed in collaboration with the American Pain Foundation, the Friends Research Institute, and in consultation with the NIH's National Institute on Drug Abuse.
