AAPM Shared Interest Groups (SIGs): bringing together members with shared interests.

Abstract

During my time with the Academy, I have witnessed significant growth in both membership and in our missions and interests. We now have clearly defined missions related to pain care, education, research, and advocacy. We also recognize that members may have shared interests in one or more of these particular mission areas and need a mechanism to come together, network, and help advance their interests. Therefore, we have created “American Academy of Pain Medicine (AAPM) Shared Interest Groups (SIGs)” to facilitate networking, advancing shared interests or discussion of a particular field or topic. AAPM SIGs are multidisciplinary and open to any AAPM member. The term “Special Interest Groups” originated on CompuServe—an online service provider that was popular in the 1980s through mid-1990s—that provided a section of their online service to members with particular interests. The special interest groups organized by Compuserve were technical in nature, but that term …