June 2025 President’s Message

Dear AAPM members and colleagues,

Some of the best advice I received as a Pain Medicine fellow by my mentor, Ajay Wasan, MD, MSc, MA was to join a professional society that aligned with my philosophies about pain care. He told me that this will lead to huge professional opportunities. Ajay was right.

The incredible people I have met through AAPM from all health disciplines have shaped who I am and how I practice pain medicine. Whatever your professional goals or challenges might be, I truly believe that our Academy is your community, with the shared goal of advancing team-based pain care for all.

My challenge to you: I encourage you to identify one cool pain medicine colleague to join our team. There is so much more we can do together. And to our graduating pain fellows, congratulations!! We look forward to you continuing as a member of our Academy. If you haven’t already, be sure to renew your membership! Great things to come for you and your patients.

For this President’s Message, I am pleased to share with you exciting updates, some fun facts, and huge thanks to our member volunteers for your dedication to AAPM.

Oh, the places we’ll go – together!

Pain Matters Podcast:

We are pleased to announce the next evolution of the Pain Matters podcast. As founding host Shravani Durbhakula, MD, MPH, MBA pursues new professional opportunities, the Academy welcomes a distinguished new host and co-hosts who will carry forward the podcast’s multidisciplinary perspectives.

Dr. Durbhakula’s interviews explored complex topics at the intersection of clinical practice, policy, equity, and innovation, always propelling us to think big about the current state of pain medicine and the future. With dual appointments in anesthesiology and public health, Dr. Durbhakula models the kind of interdisciplinary thinking that defines team-based pain care. Thank you, Shravani, for your vision and dedication to AAPM!

Beginning this season, Sudheer Potru, DO, FASA, FASAM will be the new Host of Pain Matters! He will be joined by co-host Zafeer Baber, MD, and returning super star co-host Mustafa Broachwala, DO. Together, they bring a wealth of clinical, academic, and leadership experience that will enrich the podcast’s contributions to our field.

Meet the Pain Matters Podcast Team:

Sudheer Potru, DO, FASA, FASAM

• Professional Interests: opioid safety and stewardship, the intersection of chronic pain and substance use disorder care, patient-centered communication in pain medicine, and medical education.
• Fun Facts: Sudheer is a huge Detroit Lions and Michigan State Spartans fan and loves Texas hold’em poker. Sudheer also won third place in the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee in 1997!

Zafeer Baber, MD

• Professional interests: multidisciplinary pain medicine and seeking out new and innovative techniques and therapies for the treatment of chronic pain.
• Fun Facts: Zafeer is an avid juggler and rubik’s cube aficionado. And he has a cadaver transplant in his knee.

Mustafa Broachwala, DO

• Professional interests: advancing the field of pain medicine through evidence-based practices and clinical innovation to improve patient outcomes and expand the possibilities of neuromodulation and interventional pain.
• Fun Facts: Mustafa was a ball boy for the Chicago bulls for 3 years and worked with the players and coaches before and during the game. A highlight was meeting Kobe Bryant and helping him during warm-ups on his last game at the United Center!

PainConnect 2026

Our annual meeting is going to be incredible! Beginning with foundations in acute and chronic pain medicine, we will then explore hot topics on the future of interventional pain medicine, innovation in our field, pain prevention and wellness, neural interface technologies for restorative muscle function, AAPM-led research and guidelines, acute pain advances, novel therapeutics, behavioral medicine research, women’s health, global pain medicine, and more… the Annual Meeting Committee is already working hard to bring you exciting speakers, a cutting edge conference, and great music (P4Z and the Pain Killers and DJ Jennifer Hah, MD!) in Salt Lake City, March 5-8, 2026. You don’t want to miss it!

Congratulations to the annual meeting Chair, David Copenhaver, MD, MPH and co-Chairs Traci Speed, MD, PhD and Tim Furnish, MD. Thank you for your leadership!

Meet the PainConnect Co-Chairs:

David Copenhaver, MD, MPH

• Professional Interests: understanding how we sojourn through cancer and to meet quantity of life with quality at each step of the journey.
• Fun Facts: David is Nicaraguan and loves reggae.

Traci Speed, MD, PhD

• Professional Interests: management of intractable pain conditions at the interface of medicine and psychiatry, with a focus on pancreatitis-related pain, genetic vascular conditions, and dysautonomia, best practices in safe and effective opioid tapering in the perioperative period, and integrated health care systems in pain management and addiction medicine.
• Fun Facts: Traci’s parents started a tradition of attending an MLB game in each city she visited, and she hopes to continue the tradition with her family: 13 stadiums (including the former Expos) and counting. She also started “the wave” at several O’s games in Baltimore and hope to pass her fanatical skills along to her son.

Tim Furnish, MD

• Professional Interests: post-operative pain management, gabapentin and opioid-related risks in inpatients, intrathecal drug delivery, the use of cannabinoids for the treatment of pain, and the analgesic potential of classical psychedelics.
• Fun Facts: Tim invented a cocktail, and the recipe is published in a book titled “Lost Recipes of Prohibition.” It’s a drink with gin and ginger brandy named “Dr. Furnish.”

Education/CME Committee Leadership:

Our Education Committee is critical to advancing our Academy’s education mission and supporting the annual meeting. Thank you to our new Chair Priyanka Singla, MD and Co-Chair Kellie Jaremko, MD, PhD and our many volunteers!

Meet the Education Co-Chairs:

Priyanka Singla, MD

• Professional Interests: passionate about advancing research and improving outcomes for patients experiencing chronic pain as well as post-surgical pain.
• Fun Fact: Priya was born in India and can communicate in 5 languages. Can you guess which ones?

Kellie Jaremko, MD, PhD

• Professional Interests: optimization of perioperative pain management, often with regional anesthesia, especially in those with substance use disorder, major trauma, and the critically ill.
• Fun fact: Kellie has 2 cats, a tortoise, and a basement full of pinball machines.

Menorca World Summit of Pain Medicine Leaders:

Que reunión estupenda!

On May 10-11, AAPM and Sine Dolore led a summit with global pain medicine society leaders from Spain, Great Britan, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Colombia, United Arab Emirates, Canada, Indonesia, Malaysia and the US.

We rocked the island for the annual Menorca World Summit of Pain Medicine Society Leaders.

I had a blast with AAPM leaders Kayode Williams, Md, MBA, FFARCSI, Farshad Ahadian, MD, and Nathan Neufeld, DO (joined by his beautiful family!), AAPM Innovation Challenge winner Kike Oduba, MD, MPH and her team, and my international colleagues. Thank you for your inspirations and leadership. And Jodi Moya Riera, MD, PhD, from Sine Dolore, you are a visionary host.

Our mission: to advance the field of pain medicine through collaborative international efforts advocating for equitable funding, standardized guidelines, comprehensive education, and innovative solutions that prioritize patient care and societal understanding.

This is an exceptional opportunity for international collaboration, meeting global leaders, and making an impact on how we communicate about pain in our own countries. Are you an AAPM thought leader in pain medicine? Contact us! www.painmedicineleaders.org AAPM hopes to see you in Menorca May 9-10, 2026, the “Davos of Pain.”

I look forward to hearing from you!

Please contact me at any time and let me know how AAPM can support you and your patients.

With gratitude,