ASRA Pain Medicine Update

Cite as: Narouze S. President's message: advancing the field of pain medicine. ASRA Pain Medicine News 2022;47. https://doi.org/10.52211/asra050122.013

As I write this, ASRA Pain Medicine has just finished another amazing and successful annual meeting. The 47^th Annual Regional Anesthesiology and Acute Pain Medicine meeting was held March 31-April 2, 2022, at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, NV. Although COVID-19 continues to spike and drop in pockets all over the country (and world), we are very pleased to have hosted nearly 1,100 attendees and learners from 42 states plus Palau and Puerto Rico and 20 other countries. We are hopeful that this is yet another sign of a return to some level of normalcy in our annual meetings.

At the meeting, we recognized many worthy individuals for their work. Please be sure to review the Best of Meeting and Resident/Fellow Travel Award recipients’ work, as well as the first-ever Patient Safety Award and 25 “President’s Choice” awards for abstracts that were especially noteworthy. See all of these winners and their work here.

We also recognized the lifetime accomplishments of Gaston Labat Award Recipient Dr. Brian Ilfeld and Distinguished Service Award Recipient Dr. Ban Tsui, and Presidential Scholar Award Recipient Dr. Ki Jinn Chin, as well as Resident/Fellow of the Year Award Recipient Dr. Alexander Stone. What an inspiring group of physicians, all of whom make us proud to be part of this innovative field. ASRA Pain Medicine offers many opportunities to recognize colleagues and get recognition for yourself. You might think that it’s hard to win an award, but it is truly an open and welcoming process. The next time you see an award nomination process has opened, please take the time to think about those who deserve recognition. And remember, many of these allow for self-nomination. Don’t hesitate to throw your hat in the ring!

Top: Dr. Ban Tsui (left) was given the Distinguished Service Award, and Dr. Brian Ilfeld (right) received the Gaston Labat Award at the 47th Annual Regional Anesthesiology and Acute Pain Medicine Meeting on April 2, 2022, in Las Vegas.

Middle: Dr. Ki Jinn Chin (right) received the Presidential Scholar Award in recognition of outstanding scientific and sustained contributions to regional anesthesia, acute or chronic pain medicine over the preceding 15 years.

Last: Resident/Fellow of the Year Awardee Dr. Alexander Stone (left) and nominator Dr. Christopher Wu, both from the Hospital for Special Surgery.

Although this in-person event was a great success, we continue to recognize that many are still unable to or uninterested in travel to obtain CME. As an innovative community, we offer many activities for education and connecting in virtual environments. On April 7, ASRA Pain Medicine hosted a Virtual Meet and Greet with the Association of Pain Program Directors (APPD), which allowed 100 residents to meet with up to five different program directors representing 20 programs. Response to the program was very positive, and we expect to join APPD to host this again next year.

This is just one example of the membership outreach benefits of ASRA Pain Medicine. Looking back over the past 3 months since my last message, we offered a number of exciting virtual programs. Here are just a few:

• ASRA Pain Medicine/APPD Hot Topics webinars “designed with the trainee in mind” have included:
  • How To Build Your Practice
  • Novel Minimally Invasive Interventions: Decompressions, Spacers, and Endoscopic Options
  • Intrathecal Pumps: Indication, Approach, Outcomes
• Hot Topics Acute Pain and Regional Anesthesia Edition webinars:
  • Optimizing Acute Pain Management with Advanced Multimodal Analgesia
  • Sonoanatomy of the Spine

Our special interest groups (SIGs) offered several programs as well:

• Webcasts from the NP, PA, and Clinical Nurse Special Interest Group have included:
  • Recommendations for New Hire Onboarding
  • Intravenous Ketamine for Acute Pain and Chronic Pain
• Substance Misuse in Anesthesiologists: How One Physician Was Saved - Webcast from the Pain and Substance Use Disorder SIG
• Billing and Reimbursement Panel Discussion – Online panel from the Private Practice SIG

In addition to the SIGs, ASRA Pain Medicine activities would not be possible without the support of our more than 200 volunteer committee members who serve the organization. New committee members started their terms at the close of the Spring Meeting, and we want to thank everyone who completed a term and welcome all who have just started their terms. Our practice is more effective because of this inclusive and inviting community.

Speaking of our amazing community, I want to take a moment to talk about the work we have been doing to be recognized in the larger healthcare community and advocating on your behalf as members and providers in the field. ASRA Pain Medicine is genuinely honored and privileged to have qualified for two seats in the American Medical Association’s (AMA’s) House of Delegates, which is the legislative and policy-making body of the AMA. We will be providing more information after the June AMA annual meeting.

Having seats in the House of Delegates would mean that ASRA Pain Medicine could vote on proposed initiatives and positions and thus more fully represent the regional anesthesia and acute and chronic pain field at the national legislative level. We are very proud of this next step in our development as a transformational society, and this is possible only because of our more than 5,000 dedicated and supportive members.

I look forward to providing more information on this new opportunity in my next message. Until then, I remind you to let me know if you have any ideas or suggestions and thank you for your membership!