Speaker Insight Series

NEW this year!

APS is giving you an opportunity to hear directly from annual meeting speakers. The speakers will give you insight into what you can expect to take away from their session at this year's meeting. This will influence the way you look at pain management, research and the future of pain.

Keynote Speaker, David Newman, MD

The keynote address will be held on Thursday, May 1 at 8:30 am.

Health Care's Most Important Reform—The Provider
David Newman, MD

Increasingly, surveys show patients are dissatisfied and providers are frustrated. The provider-patient relationship is in peril, and yet, though patients distrust insurance companies or pharmaceutical corporations or politicians to make decisions for them, they trust their providers. Physicians are the de facto face of reform and the primary drivers of reform’s success or failure.

This raises critical questions: Can the academic medicine community reform itself, starting with the provider? Can we reform the way we think, interact with patients, or use technologies? Can we deconstruct and rewire? There is no healthcare reform without provider reform—but providers are famously headstrong. What now?

John Loeser, MD

Dr. Loeser's plenary lecture will be held on Friday, May 2 at 8 am.

Illuminating the Path to Multidisciplinary Pain Management
John Loeser, MD

The lecture will address the history of the development of the concept of multidisciplinary pain management and various forms of its implementation in different countries throughout the world. Evidence for the efficacy of this type of pain management will be discussed and issues in the implementation of multidisciplinary pain management will be explored. Key components of successful multidisciplinary pain management will be explored and lessons learned from the experiences at the University of Washington will be discussed.

Linda Porter, PhD

Dr. Porters's workshop will be held on Friday, May 2 at 1:45 pm.

NIH Workshop on Successful Grant Writing and Funding Opportunities in Pain Research
Linda Porter, PhD (Moderator); John Kusiak, PhD; Jennifer Haythornthwaite, PhD; David Thomas, PhD

This workshop will guide new and experienced investigators through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant application process and offer tips for successful grant writing and guidance on NIH funding opportunities for pain research. It will include an overview of NIH funding mechanisms for early and midstage career development and an update on review processes at NIH.

Camilla Svensson, PhD MPharmSci

Dr. Svensson's plenary lecture will be held Friday, May 2 at 7:30 am. 

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease associated with debilitating joint pain and progressive cartilage and bone loss. Although inflammation is assumed to be the driving force for joint pain occurring in RA, recent data show that pain continues to be a problem although the disease is medically controlled or in remission. This raises the possibility that arthritis-induced pain is only partly dependent on the inflammatory status in the joint. Using disease-relevant models of RA have revealed that antibody-driven joint inflammation has long-term impacts on the sensory nervous system. This talk will describe changes in the neurochemical profile of nociceptive neurons occurring in the post-inflammatory phase of experimental arthritis and highlight potential peripheral and central mechanisms that drive persistent pain when it occurs as a consequence of joint inflammation.