The society announced the recipients of its second annual Clinical Centers of Excellence in Pain Management Awards on April 10.
“This is validation for the type of work we’ve been doing for the past couple of decades,” said Sean Mackey, chief of the Division of Pain Management at SHC and associate professor of anesthesia. “We’re seeing the pendulum swing around toward acceptance of this interdisciplinary type of pain management that involves teams of medical professionals attacking pain together.”
The pain society established the award program in 2006 to recognize multidisciplinary pain-management programs that offer direct patient care. This year 49 applications were judged by a panel of pain-management experts.
The Stanford Pain Management Center treats 6,000 patients a year who are seen by a multidisciplinary team of doctors, psychologists, physical therapists and occupational therapists. The pain-management services include novel medications provided through clinical trials, psychological and behavioral therapies, and interventional treatments ranging from trigger-point injections to spinal-cord stimulation.
Stanford also has one of the few academic, inpatient, comprehensive pain-management programs in the United States. Faculty and trainees in this program, called the Stanford Comprehensive Interdisciplinary Pain Program, hold multiple National Institute of Health awards, foundation grants and a dedicated pain research endowment.
—Courtesy Stanford Office of Communication and Public Affairs
