Faculty from the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville School of Pharmacy (SOP), and the SIU Schools of Dental Medicine (SDM) and Medicine (SOM) shared their scholarship on pain education with an audience of more than 2,300 at PAINWeek, the largest interdisciplinary pain conference in the U.S. The 10th annual event was held Sept. 6-10 in Las Vegas.
The oral presentations included the collaborative work of the SOP’s Drs. Chris Herndon and McKenzie Ferguson and the SIU SDM’s Drs. Kevin Rowland and Cyril Pandarakalam. The research team, through a grant funded by the National Institutes of Health, has established the Center of Excellence in Pain Education (CoEPE) at SIUE and Saint Louis University. The CoEPE creates educational resources for future health professionals on the subject of pain.
“Chronic pain adversely affects millions worldwide,” said Rowland. “Through the CoEPE, faculty have participated selflessly to create online, interactive learning modules that will assist our future health practitioners at this University and across the country to work interprofessionally to better serve those suffering in pain.”
The SOP’s Dr. Carrie Vogler and the SOM’s Dr. Stacy Sattovia also presented their research project, funded by a Memorial Foundation Grant, which assessed the outcomes of educating patients in the SIU Internal Medicine and Family Medicine Clinics with chronic non-cancer pain.
“It was an honor to present our research at this meeting,” said Vogler. “Pain is not just a physical experience, but also an emotional experience, which makes treatment unique for each individual. Pain education needs to be available to patients just like other disease states such as diabetes or high blood pressure.
“Our study team created four patient educational videos and facilitation guides to be used with free, 90-minute educational sessions to be led by a healthcare provider. We found as a result of this study that patients’ knowledge improved. In some patients, there was a decrease in the amount of pain medication used.”
PAINWeek attendees included physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, nurses, pharmacists, hospitalists, psychologists and other healthcare professionals involved in pain management.
Photo: (L-R) Dr. Carrie Vogler with the SIUE School of Pharmacy, Dr. Kevin Rowland with the SIU School of Dental Medicine and Dr. Stacy Sattovia with the SIU School of Medicine presented their research at the 10th annual PAINWeek.