Newswise — Again next year, the American Pain Society (APS), www.ampainsoc.org, will honor the country's outstanding pain care programs in its acclaimed Clinical Centers of Excellence in Pain Management Awards Program. APS is accepting awards submissions until Dec. 14, 2008.
The Clinical Centers of Excellence in Pain Management Awards Program honors forward-thinking teams of healthcare professionals who are satisfying unmet critical needs in pain management within their communities.
"Effective, high quality pain management involves the talents and expertise of health care professionals who appreciate and understand the complex array of clinical, psychological, social and emotional variables that pain patients deal with every day," said APS President Charles E. Inturrisi, PhD, professor of pharmacology, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York. "The awards, therefore, honor pain-care teams for overcoming tough challenges to deliver excellent care for those with chronic-pain disorders, post-surgical pain, trauma-induced pain and pain from cancer and other life-threatening conditions," he said.
Inturrisi added that the Clinical Centers of Excellence Awards also support the ongoing advocacy mission of APS to promote the benefits of multidisciplinary pain care.
APS initiated the Clinical Centers of Excellence in Pain Management Awards in 2006. Any U.S multidisciplinary clinical program that provides direct patient care and is primarily focused on the treatment of pain is eligible to apply. Nominations will be accepted through Dec. 14, 2008, and winners will be announced by the end of the first quarter. The APS awards will be presented at a gala dinner at the APS Annual Scientific Meeting in San Diego on May 7, 2009.
Some 50 million Americans have chronic pain and nearly 25 million experience acute pain every year from trauma, injury or following surgery. Pain is the leading public health problem in this country and the most common symptom that leads to medical care.
Chronic pain results in more than 50 million lost workdays each year. The cost of pain, including medical bills and lost workdays, is estimated at $100 billion per year in the U.S. Back pain alone produces chronic disability in 1 percent of the U.S. population and is the leading cause of disability in Americans under 45 years old. As our population ages, the already significant problem of pain in the elderly will increase.
About the American Pain SocietyBased 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.
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