Pain is a pervasive problem that the medical community has not yet addressed in a comprehensive way. That鈥檚 the dilemma facing an interdisciplinary group at 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis.
The started in 2011 with the goal of transforming pain care. The Institute of Medicine, now the National Academy of Medicine, reported in 2011 that , costing approximately $600 billion a year. As the opioid crisis shines a light on the issue, it鈥檚 clear this is a big job, but 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis is already making progress.
鈥淭he problem is at least in part due to the intrinsic fragmentation of medicine, science and higher education. In many ways, our center is an 鈥榰n-center鈥 in that the goal is not to create another silo but just the opposite,鈥 said , director at the Center for Advancing Pain Relief and chief of the Division of Pain Medicine at the 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis School of Medicine. 鈥淲e want to link all the groups that together would contribute to the future solutions for people in pain.鈥
To that end, the team is addressing the issue through four main pillars: education, research, clinical care and policy.
They have already created nationally and internationally endorsed competencies for educating healthcare professionals in pain management across all schools of health. And the group recently completed a review of the U.S. Medical Licensing exam, which every physician must pass. Their intention is to change accreditation requirements for schools.
For those who are already accredited, is a peer-to-peer video conference mentoring program designed to support primary care clinicians in California鈥檚 rural communities.
And this year, they welcomed the first recipients of the . Eighteen primary care physicians from all over California will spend a year (both in-person on weekends and virtually on a weekly basis) learning about chronic pain management.
鈥淭he idea is that they will go back and be the trainers for their community of primary care doctors,鈥 said Fishman.
Next, the group would like to create a consortium with the other University of California medical centers.
鈥淥ur work isn鈥檛 done until pain is alleviated,鈥 said , the center鈥檚 co-director, associate vice chancellor for nursing and founding dean at Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis. 鈥淭hat takes many different projects, over time, working and influencing many people at the policy level, changing curricula and changing practice.鈥
Added Fishman, 鈥淥ur programs are basically pilots right now. We need to scale them to a national level. So these are big visions indeed.鈥
This story is from the fall/winter 2017-18 issue of 新澳门六合彩内幕信息 Davis Magazine. Those wishing to reprint any portion of the magazine鈥檚 contents are required to write magazine@ucdavis.edu in advance for permission.