2014 CCOE Award Recipients
Community-Based Program
Pain Consultants of East Tennessee
Knoxville, TN
Pain Consultants of East Tennessee (PCET), the only multidisciplinary pain program in the Knoxville area, serves more than 1,960 patients monthly who travel from throughout the East Tennessee region. Tailored care plans ensure that each patient receives comprehensive treatment, but not more treat¬ment than indicated. A new onsite physical therapy/occupational therapy department focuses on patient rehabilitation and restoration of function. Psychology services are provided by two psychologists from Behavioral Medicine Institute (BMI), a local psychology practice that rents space within PCET. This unique link with BMI practitioners ensures that all patients have easy and immediate access to mental health assessment and treatment services. Also unique at PCET is a cost-effective single-session pain psychology group that reduces patient catastrophizing. The practice has an accredited outpatient surgery center where over 4000 minimally invasive pain procedures are performed annually. In addition, PCET Research Center provides clinical trials for pharmaceutical research in the area of pain medicine.
Joe Browder, MD MBA, PCET co-owner and staff physician, was named by his peers as a “Top Doctor” in 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014. James Choo, MD, PCET co-owner and staff physician, was also named by his peers as a “Top Doctor” in 2012, 2013, and 2014. Dr. Choo and Dr. Browder have worked closely with the Tennessee Medical Association to achieve needed legislative changes re¬garding interventional pain treatments. Ted Jones, PhD, lead clinical psychologist and president of the Tennessee Pain Society, has published multiple applied research studies. He was named national Clinical Pain Educator of the Year in 2013 by the American Society of Pain Educators. Dr. Jones and Dr. Choo both served on the Governor’s Task Force to establish Tennessee Department of Health guidelines for appropriate opioid prescribing in the state.
University-Based Programs
Center for Pain Medicine
University of California San Diego Medical Center
La Jolla, CA
Clinical care and pain research are both top priorities at the University of California San Diego Medical Center’s Center for Pain Medicine. The Center has committed to an environment in which future scientists and clinicians can learn, develop, and provide outstanding medical care. All of its physicians conduct basic and/or clinical research, and there is a solid history of successfully obtaining funding from governmental, industry, and public sources. The Center’s research and patient care have been discussed at national and international conferences, and published in peer-reviewed journals.
One of the programs newest additions is the Intensive Outpatient Pain Program. The 4-week program for those with chronic refractory pain, which was launched in collaboration with pain medicine, psychiatry, physical medicine and rehabilitation, and integrative medicine, is based on a biopsychosocial model. Use of telemedicine and an e-consult program have taken services to remote and underserved areas.
Faculty members have also been recognized for clinical excellence. Mark Wallace, MD, chair, Division of Pain, University of California San Diego Medical Center, was awarded the 2012 Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award for his efforts in treating underserved populations. The San Diego County Medical Society named three faculty members as “Top Docs” in pain medicine.
Division of Pain and Palliative Medicine
Connecticut Children’s Medical Center
Hartford, CT
The Division of Pain and Palliative Medicine at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, which serves 2,300 patients annually, is internationally known for Comfort Central, its institutional commitment to pain relief for all children. It is one of the first organizations worldwide to achieve ChildKind accreditation status. The Division’s preoperative surgical treatment spearheaded by Renee Manworren, APRN PhD, and Ana Verissimo, MD, includes hypnosis, which is continued after surgery (hypnosis outcomes demonstrate decreased opioid use, adverse outcomes, and length of stay). There is an inpatient massage program available free of charge to children in need. Nancy Bright, BS RN, program clinical care coordinator, who received a Nightingale Award in 2013, provides academic detailing to Connecticut primary care providers about reducing immunization pain and mentors pain resource nurses to improve pain management. Mick Connors, associate director, received a national leadership award from the Society of Pediatric Sedation. William T. Zempsky, MD MPH, division head, developed a collaborative clinic with hematology to optimize pain management for children and adolescents with sickle cell disease and has worked with sickle cell stakeholders statewide to improve care in emergency departments for patients with this disease. Dr. Zempsky also is co-editor of the Oxford Textbook of Paediatric Pain.
Pain Management Center
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, TX
There is beauty in the simplicity of the mission at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Pain Management Center: to alleviate and manage cancer pain. This mission guides every encounter with the more than 5,500 patients served annually by this integrated inpatient and outpatient program. The Center, which received a 2009 Clinical Centers of Excellence Award, further enhanced its comprehensive interdisciplinary pain evaluations and treatments during the last several years. In 2010, the Center began to provide cancer pain care in local communities, serving more than 2,600 patients closer to their homes in four regional care centers. The multidisciplinary/multicultural team undergoes training in cultural sensitivity to improve service to a global patient base, and uses language translators, patient advocates, chaplaincy, and multilingual educational materials. The Center has strengthened collaborations between basic scientists and clinicians nationally and abroad, with faculty collaborating with peers and leading pain workshops in Ethiopia, Jordan, India, Mexico, South Korea, Taiwan, and Turkey.
The Center now provides pain management guidance via national and international video conferences and reviews governmental extramural grants on pain. In 2011, the Center’s laboratory discovered that morphine analgesic tolerance could be selectively and specifically reversed with the anticancer drug, Gleevac. Also since 2009: the center has published 49 peer-reviewed articles and received six National Institutes of Health grants.
VA Greater Los Angeles Pain Management Program
Los Angeles, CA
The VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System Pain Program has incorporated a stepped-care model to provide pain management throughout the continuum of care. Services include an inpatient pain service that monitors all postoperative, chronic, and cancer pain patients. An outpatient chronic pain clinic and interventional pain service offers various treatment strategies within an interdisciplinary team format. The Pain Program, which serves more than 5,100 patients annually, also offers a CARF-accredited 10-week group rehabilitation program for patients with complex pain issues.
Various telehealth programs have been developed to provide far-reaching pain management for veterans living in remote regions and to increase pain expertise and expand the appeal of telehealth medicine to referring providers in remote system regions. These programs broaden the scope of care and include SCAN-ECHO Pain (which trains and supports primary care providers and delivers specialty-based pain management through state-of-the-art telehealth technology, best-practice protocols, and case-based learning), pain electronic consultation, and clinical video telehealth.
Program team members have actively pursued opioid safety initiatives such as facilitating access to prescription drug monitoring, collecting statistics on high opioid use, and identifying veterans at high risk for opioid abuse.
The CCOE in Pain Management Awards Program is supported by TEVA Pharmaceuticals, Zogenix, and Purdue Pharma L.P.
