AAPM Exerts Leadership in Public Policy: The AMA Summit, the Pain Research Database, and Opioid Safety

Abstract

AAPM is currently committed to several important initiatives that will improve care for pain sufferers, advance our efforts to achieve specialty recognition, and position AAPM as the voice of pain medicine. AAPM is optimistic about these endeavors and I urge all AAPM members to get involved to the fullest extent possible in supporting these initiatives. The first initiative I want to address involves our ongoing efforts to convene a pain summit involving all the leading stakeholders in the pain care community for the purpose of defining pain medicine, exploring certification and accreditation with the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and the American Board of Medical Specialties for the specialty of pain medicine, and setting forth, once and for all, why a societal need exists for the specialty of pain medicine. For several years, AAPM and the American Board of Pain Medicine have identified the need to gather together with the leaders of anesthesia, physical medicine and rehabilitation, neurology, and other specialties to address the state of pain care as it is managed in this country. Last summer, the AMA House of Delegates approved Resolution 321, which brought forth the opportunity to convene a pain summit of all interested pain stakeholders within the AMA. The responsibility for implementing the pain care summit was referred to the AMA's Pain and Palliative Medicine Specialty Section Council (PPMSSC), which is comprised of eight pain related specialty societies and has strong AAPM …