President's Message
Look Beyond the Horizon and Shape SPPM’s Infinite Potential
By Rita Agarwal, MD, FAAP, FASA
Clinical Professor of Anesthesiology
Stanford School of Medicine
Stanford, California
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Dr. Agarwal |
I am going to keep this short, since many of us will be seeing each other in the beautiful Bahamas soon. I am excited so many of you will be able to attend and will miss those of you who cannot. Hopefully you can make it to the 2021 Meeting in San Diego.
Drs. M-Irfan Suleman and Marisa Wiktor and the entire SPPM Education Committee have done an amazing job putting together an innovative program at our first international venue. We have a newly expanded format which includes a session in collaboration with the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (ASRA) Special Interest Group on Pediatric Regional Anesthesia and Pain Management, and a session dedicated to our colleagues from pediatrics, physical therapy, psychology, research, and nursing. Our sincerest thanks to the SPA leadership and administration for letting us try this new meeting style this year. We hope it will be a resounding success and we will be able to continue this format in the future.
Dr. Yuan-Chi Lin, Dr. Francis Kraemer and the entire Editorial Board have once again put together another great newsletter, this time focusing on acute pain management. They have solicited articles both on the organizational aspects of setting up pediatric pain services and practical information on multimodal and multidisciplinary treatment.
We continue to work with our colleagues from various organizations to strengthen connections and build bridges. Dr. Robert Wilder is working closely with the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) Special Interest Group on Pain in Childhood on the International Symposium on Pediatric Pain (ISPP) that will occur in New Zealand March 25-28, 2021. It will take place a full month after the SPPM 8th Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA, so everyone should have plenty of time to attend both. I am working with the American Association of Pain Psychologists and will be giving a talk at their annual meeting in April. We have made initial contact and had discussions with National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP) and the Pediatric Nurse Certification Board (PNCB), but there is still a lot of work to do. I encourage anyone who is interested in these efforts to contact me or Dr. Robert Wilder. If you have suggestions or ideas of other groups whose mission and vision mirror our own and who could be partners in our efforts to improve pain management for children everywhere, please let us know.
Dr. Ben Lee and I are working closely with the newly created US Association for the Study of Pain (US-ASP). There is a LOT going on with the group that arose out of the ashes of the APS. The group is regularly meeting via phone/web conference and has purchased the Journal of Pain. Many of you may have received an SPPM approved survey from the US-ASP regarding the function of this new society; what people interested in pain management or research see as their greatest unmet needs. It is exciting to be invited in at the ground floor of a new national pain society that has the capability to be extremely important and influential to the future of pain medicine. We will keep you updated on all of these efforts.
