president's message

A Brief Introduction to SPPM

By Sabine Kost-Byerly, MD
The Johns Hopkins Hospital
Baltimore, MD

Welcome to the Society for Pediatric Pain Medicine (SPPM), a Society organized within the Society for Pediatric Anesthesia.  The SPPM concept originated with directors and key leaders of acute and chronic pediatric pain medicine programs, who believed there was a need for a new society because of rapid advancement of highly specialized knowledge in the field, a great increase in the numbers of patients, and strong desire for collaboration and advocacy for infants, children, and adolescents with painful conditions.  The Society for Pediatric Pain Medicine (SPPM) supports the goals of the Society for Pediatric Anesthesia to continually advance the quality of anesthesia care, perioperative management, and, in particular, the alleviation of acute and chronic pain-related conditions in children up to 21 years of age and young adults still in the transition of care to adult practice.

The benefits of membership are listed below and I hope you all consider joining the SPPM and encouraging all your colleagues who are interested in pediatric pain management to join the society. The society is multidisciplinary, and the membership should be as well. There are member categories for non-physician members and non-anesthesiology members.

Education
The Annual Meeting will offer a program presenting the latest advances affecting the care of children with acute and chronic pain. Society members are encouraged to contribute to the program by proposing topics with current controversies, recent cutting-edge research, or new developments in a broad range of therapies. Members will have access to the annual program as lectures will be stored on the website. In addition, the society will develop educational materials for patients and family members which members will have access to on the website.

Quality and Safety
The society will develop a repository of current guidelines and policies as they pertain to the practice of pediatric pain medicine. Members will be made aware of multi-center collaborations for database or clinical trials-based research intended to improve the quality of pain medicine in children.

Networking Opportunity
The society desires to provide a home for all health care providers involved in research or the delivery of care for children with acute or chronic pain. Collaboration between professionals of various disciplines will be in the best interest of the patients for whom we care. Expertise in pediatric pain medicine can be validated in meetings and committees and lead to wider professional recognition and development within the society and even beyond it.

Advocacy
Pain in children has been poorly recognized and treated for a long time. Access to research for children has been limited. Current treatments are often based on adult paradigms without proven benefit in pediatric patients. Members are encouraged to participate in professional education, research and policy development to improve the prospects of children with pain in the near future.