The 34th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Pain Medicine (AAPM) will take place April 25-29, 2018, at the Vancouver Convention Centre in Vancouver, BC, Canada. The AAPM 34th Annual Meeting will offer attendees more than 30 hours of educational programming over a four-day period.
A multidisciplinary program committee co-chaired by James Atchison, MD and Vitaly Gordin, MD, selected from more than 100 session proposals to create the AAPM 34th Annual Meeting educational agenda. The objective of the meeting is to present recent advancements in research, clinical best practices, patient management, practice management, and the diagnosis and treatment of patients in pain to pain medicine clinicians. The meeting will provide a forum for pain medicine clinicians to present ideas in a multidisciplinary, multimodal environment to address the public health issue of pain and improve participant knowledge, competence, practice, and patient outcomes.
Meeting Theme: Managing Acute & High-Impact Chronic Pain Through Multidisciplinary Care
The fundamentals of multidisciplinary pain management have been the gold standard for pain care and have been promoted by AAPM since it was established over 30 years ago. Therefore it is timely and relevant that the AAPM 34th Annual Meeting will focus on the theme Managing Acute & High-Impact Chronic Pain through Multidisciplinary Care. The meeting has been designed to provide key stakeholders – especially physicians and members of their treatment teams – with the skills and knowledge necessary to more fully incorporate multidisciplinary care into their practices in order to improve care and optimize patient outcomes.
Premier Preconference Programs April 25-26
AAPM 34th Annual Meeting preconference programs will take place on Wednesday, April 25, 2018, and Thursday, April 26, 2018.
Pain Medicine Best Practices: Integrative Solutions for Critical Challenges Preconference:
Many healthcare professionals do not feel adequately trained to evaluate and treat the patient in pain. The Pain Medicine Best Practices: Integrative Solutions for Critical Challenges Preconference is designed for pain specialists and subspecialists, primary care providers, and trainees interested in learning how to optimize the management of chronic pain with opioid analgesics and non-opioid therapies.
This preconference will provide timely and practical information for pain management delivered through didactic lectures, case studies with audience response participation, and interactive small group discussions. Attendees have been encouraged to bring their toughest clinical dilemmas as they join expert faculty to examine the compelling challenges facing pain medicine practitioners today as well as in the coming decades. Together, faculty and attendees will explore current evidence, best practices, and emerging therapies to develop practical and integrative solutions.
Interdisciplinary/Multidisciplinary Pain-Based Care Preconference:
In light of the National Pain Strategy and treatment guidelines supporting a shift towards population-based multidisciplinary care, the role of structured interdisciplinary treatment programs and team-based care has found itself at the frontline of pain management. This preconference will provide a broad stakeholder examination of multi- and inter-disciplinary pain management programs. Participants will be highly engaged throughout the day, rotating through active workshop breakout sessions and participating in didactic lectures and panel discussions that have been designed to incorporate attendee ideas and experiences.
AAPM 34th Annual Meeting Opening Session on April 26
The AAPM 34th Annual Meeting educational program will kick off on Thursday, April 26, 2018, with the Opening Session from 5-6 pm, titled “Stakeholder Collaboration in Moving Pain Management Forward: A Payer’s Perspective.”
Kimberly George, SVP at Sedgwick Claims, will examine healthcare reimbursement issues, such as prior authorizations, that are commonly seen as barriers by clinicians. Ms. George will guide meeting attendees through novel payer initiatives including development of top-tiered outcomesbased referral networks and other initiatives to improve patient outcomes and support evidencebased quality care. These collaborative partnerships between payer and clinician can help in the quest to better manage high-impact chronic pain in an ever-changing healthcare market.
April 27 General Session & Keynote Address Speaker
Friday morning, April 27, 8:15-9:15 am, the General Session will feature opening remarks by AAPM President, Steven Stanos, DO, and the AAPM 34th Annual Meeting Keynote Address by Amy L. Compton-Phillips, MD. Dr. Compton-Phillips is executive vice president and chief clinical officer for Providence Health & Services. She has an extensive background in directing patient care programs and leading healthcare organizations. She will share a physician executive’s perspective while speaking to AAPM Annual Meeting attendees about navigating healthcare system changes, systems’ responses to pain management issues, and the general state of health care and its impact on pain physicians practicing at both private and academic institutions.
“The world is changing rapidly,” Dr. Compton-Phillips says. “The way we communicate, the way we learn, the jobs we do and the environment we live in, all have changed radically in the past 20 years and with this the transformation of medicine has begun.”
Special Topics in Pain Medicine Tracks on April 29
New for 2018, all AAPM Annual Meeting registrants are invited to participate in Special Topics in Pain Medicine Tracks on Sunday, April 29. Attendees can select to attend the full Cancer/Palliative Care, NANS Neuromodulation, or Behavioral Health track Sunday morning, or they can mix and match track sessions and presentations throughout the morning.
The Cancer/Palliative Care track is an innovative interdisciplinary track brings together experts in managing pain and collateral symptoms in the cancer patient, recognizing new pain problems resulting from novel therapies, emphasizing the utility of interdisciplinary assessment and management approaches, and considering contexts for providing palliative care strategies.
In the past several years, technological advances in spinal cord stimulation (SCS) have led to significant and rapid improvement in outcomes. The NANS Neuromodulation track will present advances in SCS, including the current understanding of mechanism of action, emerging wave form modalities, and evidence-based data supporting expanded patient selection and disease-specific indications.
Back by popular demand, the interactive Behavioral Medicine Track will give participants a solid understanding of the bio-psychosocial model of pain. Targeted outcomes include increased confidence and the ability to facilitate patient receptivity and engagement in behavioral pain medicine. Attendees will leave with clinical toolkits, enduring resources, and scripts for difficult topics.
Save the Date for the AAPM 35th Annual Meeting
The 35th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Pain Medicine will take place March 6- 10, 2019, at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, CO. The Academy will begin accepting session proposals and scientific abstract presentations during the summer of 2018 for this meeting.